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For Sunday, September 20, 2026, NYT Pips has easy, medium, and hard boards. Start with the spoiler-light hints below; open the linked solution guides only if you want the full layouts. The date-specific guides identify the boards as easy #1276, medium #1281, and hard #1288.
How the September 20 Pips boards differ
Pips is a domino-style logic puzzle: place every domino so the pip values in each board region meet that region’s rule. NYT Game Solver lists these board sizes and tile counts for September 20, 2026:
| Difficulty | Board size | Dominoes | Puzzle ID | Constructor |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Easy | 4×5 | 5 | #1276 | Ian Livengood |
| Medium | 4×5 | 7 | #1281 | Ian Livengood |
| Hard | 9×8 | 14 | #1288 | Rodolfo Kurchan |
Ian Livengood is identified as editor of the set. EnergyPips also reports that the easy board has 10 squares for its 5 dominoes and the hard board has 28 squares for its 14 dominoes. The sources provide no measured solve times, so the board sizes and tile counts are the clearest comparison of scale.
Easy hints: start with the forced single-cell region
The easy guide recommends beginning at the one-cell region whose rule requires a total of 1. A single cell leaves little room for interpretation, making it a useful anchor before filling the rest of the board.
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- The guide reports a three-cell equal-value region filled with 0, 0, 0.
- A two-cell region totaling 8 is filled with 4 and 4.
- A two-cell region totaling 9 is filled with 6 and 3.
- There is a second single-cell region with a sum of 1 and one unconstrained square.
- The listed tray includes a 0–0 double.
These are clues reported by the dated guide, not an independently verified reconstruction. For the complete easy layout, see NYT Game Solver’s September 20, 2026 Pips answers.
Medium hints and full solution
The medium board uses the same 4×5 dimensions as easy but requires 7 dominoes. Its dated guide gives progressive hints and a full solution, including a three-cell equal region plus exact-sum and inequality regions. Because the available clue text does not establish the full placement grid, use the source for the exact layout: EnergyPips’ September 20, 2026 solutions.
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Hard hints: place doubles early
Hard expands to a 9×8 board with 14 dominoes. The guide’s practical advice is to place doubles early: in an all-equal region, a double has fewer plausible placements than a mixed-value tile. The hard tray is reported to contain four doubles. For the complete board solution, consult EnergyPips’ September 20, 2026 solutions.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Sources and date
The title’s date does not include a year. This guide follows the date-specific solution pages for September 20, 2026, which list easy, medium, and hard answers for that Sunday; a separate older community discussion concerns September 20, 2025. Board sizes, constructors, and tile counts above are attributed to NYT Game Solver and EnergyPips rather than presented as independent measurements. NYT Game Solver · EnergyPips
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