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Outbyte Driver Updater FREEScan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Outbyte PC Repair FREEClear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Here are spoiler-light hints and the listed answers for the Thursday, August 20, 2026, NYT Pips puzzles. There are three boards—easy, medium, and hard. If you want to solve the easy board yourself, begin with its top-left single cell: its “less than 1” rule forces a 0. Full easy-board placements appear below; the medium and hard sections summarize their constraints and link to the complete solutions.
August 20, 2026 Pips puzzle at a glance
Pips is a domino-placement logic puzzle: place every domino on the board while making the values in each colored region satisfy its mathematical condition. The independent answer pages identify the three August 20 boards as follows:
| Difficulty | Puzzle number | Board size | Dominoes | Region details reported |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Easy | #1191 | 10 squares | 5 | Three sum regions; also includes a less-than-1 single cell and two unrestricted single cells. |
| Medium | #1196 | 14 squares | 7 | Seven regions, including exact sums, an equal-value region, and a less-than-2 single cell. |
| Hard | #1203 | 26 squares | 13 | 14 regions; EnergyPips characterizes eight as loose, meaning comparison-based or unconstrained. |
The puzzle numbers, board counts, and constraint summaries are reported by NYT Game Solver and EnergyPips. Board size alone does not establish how difficult a puzzle is to solve.
Easy hints
Hint 1: Start with the corner
The top-left region is one cell and says “less than 1.” Since domino values are nonnegative, the only value that satisfies that rule is 0.
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Hint 2: Use the domino inventory
The easy tray includes a 3-3 double. EnergyPips reports no all-equal or all-different regions on this board, so that double can wait while you place tiles that meet tighter clues.
Hint 3: The opening value
The corner cell is 0. The independent walkthrough at Pips NYT Hints describes the next deductions: the first sum requires 6 beside 4, and another two-cell sum requires 5 beside 5.
Easy answers and placements
The placements below are listed by EnergyPips for the 10-square, five-domino board. Coordinates start at row 1, column 1, with rows counted from top to bottom and columns from left to right.
- 4-0: row 1, columns 2 and 1, respectively.
- 6-5: row 2, column 2; then row 3, column 2.
- 4-1: row 2, column 4; then row 3, column 4.
- 5-1: row 3, column 3; then row 4, column 3.
- 3-3: row 1, columns 4 and 5.
In the listed arrangement, the top-left less-than-1 cell is 0; the top-centre two-cell sum is 4 and 6; the three-cell sum region is 3, 3, and 4; the middle two-cell sum is 5 and 5; and the two unrestricted single cells are 1 each. EnergyPips provides the placements in its August 20 answer listing; the independent Pips NYT Hints walkthrough corroborates the key easy-board deductions.
Medium board: clues to work from
The medium board has 14 squares, seven regions, and seven dominoes. NYT Game Solver lists these constraints:
- A three-cell region totaling 12.
- A single cell with a value less than 2.
- An equal-value region of three cells.
- An equal-value region of two cells.
- A two-cell region totaling 9.
EnergyPips and Pips NYT Hints publish medium-level walkthroughs and answers on their August 20 archive and August 20 walkthrough. The exact hint sequence and full placements are available there.
Hard board: what the clues establish
The hard board has 26 squares, 13 dominoes, and 14 regions. EnergyPips describes eight of the regions as loose—comparison-based or unconstrained. NYT Game Solver lists examples of hard-board constraints: a two-cell sum of 3, an open cell, equal-value regions, and a single cell greater than zero.
Those examples are not a complete transcription of the hard board or its placements. For the full hard solution, use the source pages’ answer layouts: EnergyPips and NYT Game Solver.
A practical way to approach the boards
NYT Game Solver recommends anchoring the tightest regions first and keeping track of the domino inventory. Applied to these puzzles, that means looking for a small region whose rule sharply limits its possible values, then checking the other half of any candidate domino against the region it would enter.
- Scan for a one-cell comparison clue or a small exact-sum region; these often narrow the possible values fastest.
- For each possible value, check which remaining dominoes contain it.
- Before committing to a domino, account for its other half and the neighboring region it must occupy.
- Update the unused-domino inventory after each placement, then return to the most constrained unresolved region.
This is general solving guidance attributed to NYT Game Solver, not a claim that every board can be solved in a fixed order.
Sources and verification
The placements and summaries here come from independent answer archives and walkthroughs. The official NYT Pips page was not readable when these pages were checked, so the listed placements are not presented as firsthand verification against the live game. EnergyPips identifies itself as independent of The New York Times and credits Ian Livengood with the easy and medium boards and Rodolfo Kurchan with the hard board.
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