Queens Grid

Daily Queens Puzzle — January 1, 2026

Thursday · 10×10 · Tricky · Medium · 21 deductions

10 queens left to place.

Tap once to rule a cell out, twice to place a queen. Right-click marks an exclusion directly. Arrow keys move between cells.

A 10x10 board split into 10 colour regions, needing 10 queens: one per row, one per column, one per region, none touching. Regions run from 2 to 31 cells.

The daily board is the same for everyone and gets harder as the week goes on: Thursday is set to tricky. Every daily puzzle has one solution and needs no guessing.

How this board is solved

Solving this 10x10 board takes 21 deductions and needs the intermediate group-lock techniques, drawing on 4 distinct techniques. It opens on row 1, ruling cells out before any queen goes down. The queens resolve in the order J2 → H1 → C6 → B8 → A10 → G9 → D4 → F3 → I5 → E7. Every step follows by logic, so you never have to guess.

Techniques this board needs

Full solution, step by step (21 deductions)
  1. Region line lock essential

    Region line lock. This colour must use row 1, so nothing else can. This reasons over row 1. Rules out A1, B1, C1, D1, E1, F1, G1, J1.

  2. Region line lock essential

    Region line lock. This colour must use row 2, so nothing else can. This reasons over row 2. Rules out A2, B2, C2, D2, E2, F2, G2, H2.

  3. Region line lock essential

    Region line lock. This colour must use column 3, so nothing else can. This reasons over column 3. Rules out C3, C4, C5, C8, C9, C10.

  4. Region line lock essential

    Region line lock. This colour must use column 1, so nothing else can. This reasons over column 1. Rules out A3, A4, A5, A6, A7.

  5. Region line lock essential

    Region line lock. This colour must use column 2, so nothing else can. This reasons over column 2. Rules out B3, B4, B5, B6, B9, B10.

  6. Shared diagonal neighbour intermediate

    Shared diagonal neighbour. Every remaining option for this colour touches these cells, so they are out. Rules out I2.

  7. Forced queen essential

    Forced queen. This colour has one legal cell left, so its queen goes there. Place a queen at J2.

  8. Forced queen essential

    Forced queen. This colour has one legal cell left, so its queen goes there. Place a queen at H1.

  9. Region line lock essential

    Region line lock. This colour must use column 7, so nothing else can. This reasons over column 7. Rules out G3, G4, G5, G6, G7, G8.

  10. Region line lock essential

    Region line lock. This colour must use row 3, so nothing else can. This reasons over row 3. Rules out D3.

  11. Region line lock essential

    Region line lock. This colour must use column 9, so nothing else can. This reasons over column 9. Rules out I7, I8, I9, I10.

  12. Shared diagonal neighbour intermediate

    Shared diagonal neighbour. Every remaining option for this colour touches these cells, so they are out. Rules out E4, F4.

  13. Shared diagonal neighbour intermediate

    Shared diagonal neighbour. Every remaining option for this colour touches these cells, so they are out. Rules out C7, A8.

  14. Forced queen essential

    Forced queen. This colour has one legal cell left, so its queen goes there. Place a queen at C6.

  15. Forced queen essential

    Forced queen. This colour has one legal cell left, so its queen goes there. Place a queen at B8.

  16. Forced queen essential

    Forced queen. This colour has one legal cell left, so its queen goes there. Place a queen at A10.

  17. Forced queen essential

    Forced queen. This colour has one legal cell left, so its queen goes there. Place a queen at G9.

  18. Last cell in a line essential

    Last cell in a line. Column 4 has one legal cell left, so its queen goes there. Place a queen at D4. This reasons over column 4.

  19. Forced queen essential

    Forced queen. This colour has one legal cell left, so its queen goes there. Place a queen at F3.

  20. Forced queen essential

    Forced queen. This colour has one legal cell left, so its queen goes there. Place a queen at I5.

  21. Forced queen essential

    Forced queen. This colour has one legal cell left, so its queen goes there. Place a queen at E7.

Answer: queens at J2, H1, C6, B8, A10, G9, D4, F3, I5, E7.