How to solve this 8×8 logic puzzle

8×8 · steady · 16 steps

This 8×8 board rates as steady (difficulty score 832). Solving it from scratch takes 25 logical steps, using 6 techniques: Single cell, Row/column exclusion, Adjacency clear, Region confinement, Paired regions, Shape squeeze. Every step below is forced — nothing here is a guess.

First, place a marker at row 3, column 2. Region has exactly one open cell left. Placing here clears the rest of row 3, column 2, and its region. Placing here also clears its 4 touching neighbours.
Next, together, two regions have open cells only in rows 1 and 2 — with one marker each, those two markers have to fill exactly those two rows, so every other region's open cells there can be cleared.
Then, place a marker at row 4, column 4. Region has exactly one open cell left. Placing here clears the rest of row 4, column 4, and its region. Placing here also clears its 2 touching neighbours.
After that, place a marker at row 2, column 5. Row 2 has exactly one open cell left. Placing here clears the rest of row 2, column 5, and its region.
Now, every open cell left in this region sits in column 1, so its marker has to land there — clearing every other open cell in the column.
From there, place a marker at row 1, column 3. Region has exactly one open cell left. Placing here clears the rest of row 1, column 3, and its region.
Following that, every open cell left in this region sits in row 7, so its marker has to land there — clearing every other open cell in the row.
First, every remaining candidate in this region touches row 6, column 7 — so whichever candidate ends up marked will clear it, and it can be ruled out now regardless of which one wins.
Next, every remaining candidate in this region touches row 6, column 6 and row 8, column 6 and row 8, column 7 — so whichever candidate ends up marked will clear them, and they can be ruled out now regardless of which one wins.
Then, every open cell left in this region sits in row 5, so its marker has to land there — clearing every other open cell in the row.
After that, every open cell left in this region sits in column 8, so its marker has to land there — clearing every other open cell in the column.
Now, every remaining candidate in this region touches row 7, column 7 — so whichever candidate ends up marked will clear it, and it can be ruled out now regardless of which one wins.
From there, place a marker at row 7, column 6. Region has exactly one open cell left. Placing here clears the rest of row 7, column 6, and its region.
Following that, place a marker at row 5, column 7. Region has exactly one open cell left. Placing here also clears its 1 touching neighbour.
First, place a marker at row 8, column 8. Region has exactly one open cell left. Placing here clears the rest of row 8, column 8, and its region.
Finally, place a marker at row 6, column 1. Region has exactly one open cell left.

The key move here was Shape squeeze — once you can spot that, this board falls quickly. ∎