What are Chain Puzzles?
A chain puzzle is a type of word puzzle that uses the end of one word to start the next word. The starting square is indicated and each word in the chain has a clue, along with the length of the answer and the starting location in the chain.
The idea is to move along the puzzle, from one word to the next, and complete the chain. Sometimes the chain forms a loop, other times it is a straight chain.
A typical chain puzzle is shown above (the actual clues have been omitted for clarity).
This is a chain puzzle that loops back to the beginning
How to Solve Chain Puzzles
The first thing to do is to check the starting square, the letter there and the clue.
The clue for the first answer is ‘attractive, pretty (9)‘. If you correctly get the answer ‘beautiful‘, then that part of the puzzle looks like this:
The number of shared letters depends on the length of the previous word and the starting position of the next work.
In this case, the second word starts where the first one ended and has only one shared letter.
The clue for the second word is ‘supple, easily bent (5)‘. The correct answer here is ‘lithe‘ and that part of the puzzle now looks like this:
It is important to note that the L at the end of beautiful and the L at the start of lithe hasn’t been repeated. The words have been chained together, hence the name of this type of puzzle.
There is also something else that should be mentioned. The next word doesn’t start at the end of lithe, but rather in the middle. This isn’t a mistake – it just shows that the next word starts with ‘the‘. You have been given extra information, which helps you!
If you don’t know an answer, skip it and move on to the next one. The extra letter(s) might be all the help you need to get the answer.
Once you’ve finished the puzzle, all of the chain will be filled in, with the words chained together in the correct manner. Well done!
How to Solve Chain Puzzles – Summary
Do you like solving chain puzzles? Do you prefer the ones that loop back to the beginning, or the straight ones?
Please use the comments below and tell us about it.
