Archive ยท Puzzle #18
Tango puzzle for Wednesday, July 22, 2026
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Tango #18 in numbers
Puzzle #18 starts with 7 given cells, 2 equals signs and 0 cross signs, leaving 29 cells to deduce. Our solver fills them in 29 forced steps without a single guess: 18 from the no-three-in-a-row rule, 9 from a row or column that already had its three, 2 from an = sign. Every step uses the three basic rules, so this is a board you can finish without ever having to list possibilities.
Spoilers: the solved board and how the first steps are forced
๐๐โ๏ธ๐โ๏ธโ๏ธ ๐๐โ๏ธโ๏ธ๐โ๏ธ โ๏ธโ๏ธ๐โ๏ธ๐๐ ๐๐โ๏ธ๐โ๏ธโ๏ธ โ๏ธโ๏ธ๐๐โ๏ธ๐ โ๏ธโ๏ธ๐โ๏ธ๐๐
- row 3, column 5 is a moon: The = sign means these two cells must match.
- row 2, column 3 is a sun: No three of the same can be adjacent, so this cell is forced.
- row 5, column 3 is a moon: No three of the same can be adjacent, so this cell is forced.
- row 3, column 2 is a sun: No three of the same can be adjacent, so this cell is forced.
- row 4, column 2 is a moon: No three of the same can be adjacent, so this cell is forced.
- row 1, column 5 is a sun: No three of the same can be adjacent, so this cell is forced.
- row 4, column 5 is a sun: No three of the same can be adjacent, so this cell is forced.
- row 6, column 5 is a moon: No three of the same can be adjacent, so this cell is forced.
- row 2, column 4 is a sun: This row already has three moons, so the rest are suns.
- row 2, column 6 is a sun: This row already has three moons, so the rest are suns.
- row 5, column 4 is a moon: This row already has three suns, so the rest are moons.
- row 5, column 6 is a moon: This row already has three suns, so the rest are moons.
The remaining 17 cells follow the same way; the hint button in the puzzle above walks through every one of them with its reason.
Rows and columns are counted from the top-left. Every daily Tango Unlimited board is generated to have exactly one solution and to be solvable by deduction alone; the how-to-play page explains each technique.