Beat the Clock
A timed Queens sprint — start with 60 seconds, earn bonus time with every solve, and clear as many boards as you can before the bank hits zero.
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This week's leaderboard
Weekly leaderboards
Week of 2026-07-27 (UTC Monday). Sign in to submit a score. Empty tables mean nobody has posted yet — be the first.
How Beat the Clock works
Pick a difficulty, start a run, and the clock begins immediately. You have 60 seconds in the bank. Solve a board and that mode's bonus seconds are added back — Easy gives you the most breathing room, Expert the least. Board sizes rotate within the mode's range from the unlimited puzzle pool, with no repeats inside a single run. Undo, Reset, and Hint stay available; hints cost only the time you spend using them. The timer is wall-clock and does not pause when you leave the tab.
Your score is how many puzzles you clear. Average solve time breaks ties. Local bests are saved per mode in your browser; signed-in players also appear on the weekly leaderboard for that mode.
Why play a timed Queens sprint?
Beat the Clock trains the same deductions as the daily challenge and unlimited mode, but under pace pressure. Short boards reward pattern recognition; longer Expert boards reward clean technique when every second of bank matters. It is a free online Queens game mode — no download, no account required to play.
Prefer a fixed daily race? Open the daily challenge and use the Beat the Clock tab for today's shared Easy sequence. Or warm up on unlimited 8×8 before your next sprint, sharpen your eliminations with the solving techniques guide, or test your speed directly against another player in ranked multiplayer.
Frequently asked questions
How does Beat the Clock work?
You start with a 60-second time bank. Solve Queens boards as quickly as you can — every completed board adds bonus seconds back to the bank. The run ends when the bank hits zero, or when you press End run. Your score is the number of boards you solved, with average solve time as the tiebreak.
What are the Beat the Clock difficulty modes?
Easy adds 10 seconds per solve on boards from 7×7 to 9×9. Medium adds 7 seconds on 8×8–10×10. Hard adds 5 seconds on 9×9–11×11. Expert adds 3 seconds on 10×10–12×12. Pick a mode on the Beat the Clock page and start a run whenever you like.
Is there a daily Beat the Clock?
Yes. The fourth tab on the daily challenge page is a once-per-day Beat the Clock run with Easy rules. Everyone gets the same puzzle sequence that day. It is tracked separately from the three daily boards and does not count toward the 0/3 daily completion or streak.
Does the Beat the Clock timer pause when I switch tabs?
No. The time bank is wall-clock time — it keeps ticking even if the tab is hidden. If the bank expires while you are away, the run ends cleanly when you return.
Do I need an account to play Beat the Clock?
No. You can play any mode and save a local best score in your browser without signing in. Signing in lets you appear on the weekly per-mode leaderboard.