Align (Boston Globe)

About Align (Boston Globe)

Align is the original word game the Boston Globe added to its puzzles page next to its crossword, mini crossword, KenKen, sudoku and Word Flower. The Globe credits it to Brendan Emmett Quigley, a well-known crossword constructor, and Ben Gottlieb.

Each day's puzzle is a grid of letters that has been scrambled. Hidden in it are ten words, and your job is to swap letters around until every one of them reads correctly in the grid. It takes vocabulary to see what the words could be and logic to work out where each letter has to go, since a swap that fixes one word can break another.

There are two ways to score: by how fast you finish and by how few swaps you need, and you can chase either or both. The daily puzzle is free to play, and Globe subscribers can open the archive of every Align puzzle published. It suits players of swap puzzles such as Waffle who want a newspaper's daily grid with a constructor's name behind it.

How to play Align (Boston Globe)

1. Open the day's Align grid of scrambled letters.
2. Look for the ten words the grid should hold.
3. Swap two letters at a time to move them toward their places.
4. Keep going until every word in the grid reads correctly.
5. Check your time and your number of swaps, and come back the next day for a new grid.

Tips

• Fix the letters you are sure of first and leave them alone.
• Before swapping, work out a few full words in your head; random swaps cost you on the swap count.
• If you are playing for fewest swaps, ignore the clock and plan each move.

Questions