The Sunday edition of NYT Connections arrives with puzzle #1113, serving up a grid that rewards musical knowledge, sharp wordplay instincts, and the ability to spot hidden homophones. Today's challenge particularly favors guitarists, surfers, and anyone who's ever yelled "begin" to start a race.
What Makes Connections Tick
For newcomers, NYT Connections presents 16 words that must be sorted into four thematic groups of four. The twist? You're limited to four mistakes, and the color-coded difficulty system (yellow being easiest, purple being trickiest) means surface-level connections often mislead.
Since its June 2023 launch, Connections has carved out its niche in the Times' puzzle ecosystem, standing alongside Wordle and the crossword as a daily ritual for millions of players worldwide. The game's genius lies in its red herrings, words that could fit multiple categories but belong in only one.
Today's Grid at a Glance
Here are the 16 words staring back at you in puzzle #1113:
PICK | CHESS | START | SELECT
CHOICE | GO | SLIDE | CORPORATION
BEGIN | PRIME | SURFER | STRAP
CAPO | DARTS | NOW | FINE
A seemingly random collection that somehow connects into four perfect categories, if you can tune out the noise.
Strategic Hints (No Spoilers Yet)
Yellow Category Nudge: These four words describe something premium, top-shelf, or carefully curated, think quality over quantity.
Green Category Clue: Think of a starting gun, a traffic light turning green, or the countdown to a launch. These are all about taking that first step.
Blue Category Hint: Any guitarist will spot this one quickly. These are the tools and accessories that help shape the sound coming out of an electric or acoustic instrument.
Purple Category Teaser: These four words all share something physical, a flat, rigid surface. Think about what chess, a corporation, darts, and a surfer all have in common.
The Full Solutions
Last chance to solve independently: answers below
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Yellow (High-Quality): CHOICE, FINE, PRIME, SELECT
This is the easiest category for a reason, these four words are all synonyms for "excellent" or "top-tier." A "choice" cut of meat, a "fine" wine, a "prime" piece of real estate, a "select" collection. Nothing tricky here, just clean synonym spotting.
Green (Signals to Commence): BEGIN, GO, NOW, START
Another straightforward cluster once you stop overthinking it. "Begin" and "start" are direct synonyms, "go" is the universal race-start command, and "now" signals immediate action. The trap? "Pick" and "select" from Yellow could have tempted you here, but they belong to the quality group.
Blue (Accessories for a Guitarist): CAPO, PICK, SLIDE, STRAP
This category rewards anyone who's ever noodled on a six-string. A capo clamps across the fretboard to change key, a pick (or plectrum) strums the strings, a slide creates those bluesy glissando effects, and a strap keeps the instrument hanging comfortably. "Slide" might have thrown some players, it's easy to read it as a playground verb rather than a guitarist's glass or metal tube.
Purple (They Have Boards): CHESS, CORPORATION, DARTS, SURFER
Here's where the puzzle earns its purple rating. These four words all involve "boards", but not in an obvious way. Chess is played on a chessboard, a corporation is overseen by a board of directors, darts uses a dartboard, and a surfer rides a surfboard. The homophone trick is diabolical: "board" appears in four different contexts (game, governance, target, sport), and the solver has to catch the through-line. "Corporation" is the master misdirection, it looks completely out of place until the penny drops.
The Verdict
Puzzle #1113 registers as moderate difficulty with a sting in the tail. Yellow falls quickly for anyone who recognizes synonym clusters, while green requires thinking about your start commands rather than quality descriptors.
Blue separates the musicians from the casual listeners. Purple, predictably, is the streak-ender, that "board" homophone trick won't reveal itself without serious lateral thinking.
The real trap here is "slide" and "pick." Both could plausibly belong in a "things you do with your hands" category, but they're actually guitar accessories. And "corporation" looks like an alien word dropped into a casual word game, which is exactly the point. It's the anchor that makes purple work.
Reset and Repeat
Tomorrow's puzzle drops at midnight in your timezone. Until then, reflect on today's performance: did you spot the guitarist's toolkit early, or did "corporation" and "surfer" leave you scratching your head?
The beauty lies not in perfection but in training your brain to spot these hidden patterns.
For now, puzzle #1113 is solved. See you at midnight for round #1114.
