Friday, October 16, 2026 · edited by Ian Livengood
Easy 5 · Medium 7 · Hard 14 dominoes. The hard board has 17 regions and 3 doubles.
Cells are written row then column from the top-left (R1C1). Each domino is read in the Times’ own orientation: its first number on the first cell listed.
Easy Pips answer (5 dominoes · by Ian Livengood)
Where each domino goes
- 3–5: 3 on R2C3, 5 on R3C3
- 5–4: 5 on R3C2, 4 on R4C2
- 6–4: 6 on R5C3, 4 on R5C2
- 4–4: 4 on R4C1, 4 on R5C1
- 2–1: 2 on R2C4, 1 on R1C4
Every region, checked
- R2C3, R2C4 (must total 5): 3 + 2 = 5
- R3C2, R3C3 (all the same number): 5 + 5
- R4C1, R4C2, R5C1, R5C2 (all the same number): 4 + 4 + 4 + 4
- R5C3 (must total more than 1): 6
Medium Pips answer (7 dominoes · by Ian Livengood)
Where each domino goes
- 1–5: 1 on R3C1, 5 on R3C2
- 5–4: 5 on R3C5, 4 on R2C5
- 4–2: 4 on R2C2, 2 on R2C3
- 5–5: 5 on R3C3, 5 on R3C4
- 0–3: 0 on R4C5, 3 on R4C4
- 4–0: 4 on R4C2, 0 on R4C1
- 1–0: 1 on R2C4, 0 on R1C4
Every region, checked
- R1C4 (must total less than 1): 0
- R2C3, R2C4 (must total 3): 2 + 1 = 3
- R2C5 (must total more than 2): 4
- R3C1, R4C1 (must total 1): 1 + 0 = 1
- R3C2, R3C3 (must total more than 9): 5 + 5 = 10
- R3C4, R3C5 (must total more than 9): 5 + 5 = 10
- R4C2 (must total more than 3): 4
- R4C5 (must total less than 1): 0
Hard Pips answer (14 dominoes · by Rodolfo Kurchan)
Where each domino goes
- 5–5: 5 on R5C7, 5 on R6C7
- 4–3: 4 on R5C4, 3 on R6C4
- 3–2: 3 on R1C7, 2 on R2C7
- 0–1: 0 on R6C1, 1 on R5C1
- 1–2: 1 on R5C2, 2 on R6C2
- 4–5: 4 on R3C7, 5 on R4C7
- 2–6: 2 on R3C2, 6 on R2C2
- 1–5: 1 on R2C1, 5 on R3C1
- 1–1: 1 on R2C5, 1 on R3C5
- 0–0: 0 on R1C4, 0 on R2C4
- 3–0: 3 on R4C4, 0 on R3C4
- 4–1: 4 on R4C2, 1 on R4C1
- 3–5: 3 on R3C6, 5 on R4C6
- 2–4: 2 on R1C1, 4 on R1C2
Every region, checked
- R1C2 (must total 4): 4
- R1C4, R2C4, R3C4 (all the same number): 0 + 0 + 0
- R1C7, R2C7, R3C7 (must total more than 8): 3 + 2 + 4 = 9
- R2C1 (must total 1): 1
- R2C2 (must total 6): 6
- R2C5, R3C5 (must total 2): 1 + 1 = 2
- R3C1 (must total 5): 5
- R3C2, R4C2 (all different numbers): 2 + 4
- R4C1 (must total 1): 1
- R4C4, R5C4, R6C4 (must total more than 9): 3 + 4 + 3 = 10
- R4C6, R4C7, R5C7, R6C7 (all the same number): 5 + 5 + 5 + 5
- R6C1 (must total 0): 0
- R6C2 (must total 2): 2
Place the one-cell regions with a fixed number first: each one tells you a half you must find in the tray.