Queens Daily #26 — September 13, 2026
Daily #26 is a Sunday board, which makes it an 8×8: a recovery board in the weekly schedule. This is the exact board published on September 13, 2026 — it is regenerated from its date, so the regions and the single solution are identical to what everyone played that day. The 8 regions on this board range from 1 cell to 15; the largest is the one that sprawls across the board (rows 2–7, columns 2–7). 3 regions start out inside a single row or column, which is where line ownership comes from. The opening gives you 2 forced crowns before the board asks for blocking cells (spots that would leave a neighbor with nowhere to go).
Where this board sits in the week
- Monday — 7×7, the gentlest board of the week.
- Tuesday & Wednesday — 8×8, the everyday size.
- Thursday & Friday — 9×9, a real mid-game.
- Saturday — 10×10, the expert board.
- Sunday — 8×8, a recovery board. ← Daily #26
Hints for Daily #26 (no full solution)
These hints tell you where to look on this particular board and why, in the order a careful solver would get there. They stop well short of the answer. Open only as many as you need.
Hint 1: Where to start
There is a one-cell region on the top edge, at row 1, column 5. A region must hold a crown, so that one is free — place it and cross out its row, its column and the ring of cells around it.
Hint 2: The next thing to notice (after about 2 moves)
The 2-cell region toward the bottom right (row 6, columns 7–8) has all of its open cells in row 6. That row's crown therefore belongs to this region, and every other cell in row 6 can be crossed out — 4 cells in one go.
Hint 3: The step that unlocks the rest (after about 5 moves)
Focus on the cells around the 2-cell region toward the bottom right (row 6, columns 7–8). It has so few open cells that a crown placed next to it could cover all of them at once. Any cell that would do that can be crossed out — there are 3 such cells on this 8×8.
Rows are counted from the top and columns from the left, starting at 1. Still stuck after that? The Hint button under the board checks your crowns and places the next correct one, and the strategy guide explains each technique named above.
Compared with the day before
Yesterday's board (Saturday, September 12) was a 10×10, so today is smaller: 36 fewer cells, and each crown clears a bigger share of the grid. It also asks for more: yesterday's hardest step was line ownership (a region that fits inside one row or column), while today needs blocking cells (spots that would leave a neighbor with nowhere to go). The opening is stingier: 2 forced crowns before the first real technique, against 3 yesterday.
More dailies
Archive replays are for fun and practice: they never affect your streak, which only today's board can extend. For boards nobody has seen before, there is unlimited mode.