The New York Times recently introduced a new weekly set of bonus puzzle games called Pips, available to subscribers with some free puzzles for non-subscribers. Erik Kain’s Forbes article from September 2, 2026, offers a detailed guide on how to solve the daily Pips puzzles, explaining the game mechanics and providing full solutions for the Easy, Medium, and Hard tiers of the challenge. Each Pips puzzle consists of a grid with multi-colored boxes, where players must place a series of domino-like tiles to satisfy various arithmetic and equality conditions indicated by colors and symbols on the grid.

The puzzle conditions include requirements such as equal or unequal values within colored groups, greater-than or less-than value constraints, and tiles demanding specific numeric values. Players must use all dominoes placed on the grid while carefully rotating them to fit the layout and meet every condition. Sometimes puzzles have multiple solutions, but typically, there is one definitive placement strategy. The article also links readers to the official New York Times Pips game for hands-on play.

Kain walks through the specific solution to the Hard Pips puzzle released on Thursday, September 3, 2026, which is themed around JFK airport and the busy Labor Day weekend travel. The walkthrough breaks down the puzzle step-by-step, covering placement choices like using the 5/5 domino in the orange-colored section to navigate around the constraints in the purple and orange areas, and carefully assigning other dominoes to sections with inequalities and exact values to complete the grid successfully.

The article concludes by inviting puzzle enthusiasts to test their skills on the latest Pips and share their experience. Kain encourages readers to follow him for daily puzzle guides and other entertainment-related insights via his social media channels. This piece provides helpful hints, images of the puzzles and solutions, and a clear methodology for approaching Pips puzzles, catering to both casual players and those aiming to master the New York Times’ newest word-numeric challenge.