The New York Times has launched a sports-themed version of its popular Connections word game in partnership with The Athletic. Today’s puzzle, numbered 709, challenges players to identify common links between 16 words arranged across four categories of increasing difficulty.
Connections: Sports Edition follows the same mechanics as the original game, requiring players to group words that share a meaningful connection. The puzzle features color-coded difficulty levels, with yellow representing the easiest category and purple the most challenging. Players have up to four incorrect guesses before the game ends. Like the original Wordle format, a new puzzle becomes available each day after midnight, and results can be shared on social media.
Today’s solution includes four distinct groupings: sports prefixes that precede the word “ball,” universities located in Texas, professional athletes sharing the Portuguese first name Fernando, and words that can follow specific sporting terms. Successfully solving these connections requires both general sports knowledge and careful consideration of wordplay possibilities, as multiple answers may initially appear to fit together.
Players seeking additional puzzle entertainment can explore Mashable’s gaming hub, which offers mahjong, sudoku, crosswords, and other games alongside daily Connections challenges.
Originally reported by Mashable →
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