The Times KenKen

Rate it

Fill The Times daily KenKen grid so every cage makes its target.

on thetimes.com

The Times Puzzles app menu on a phone and tablet, with a KenKen tile among Killer Sudoku, Kakuro and the other Times puzzles

KenKen is an arithmetic logic grid: each row and column holds each digit once, and each outlined cage must make its target number with the operation shown. The Times sets a new numbered KenKen every day.

About The Times KenKen

KenKen was invented by the Japanese maths teacher Tetsuya Miyamoto in 2004, and The Times began publishing it in March 2008. It is now part of the numbers and logic section of The Times puzzles online and of the Times Puzzles app, with a new numbered grid every day.

The grid is a square in which each row and each column holds every digit from 1 up to the size of the grid exactly once, so a six by six grid uses 1 to 6. Heavy outlines split it into cages, and each cage shows a target number and an operation: add, subtract, multiply or divide. The digits in the cage must reach the target with that operation. Unlike sudoku there are no boxes, and a digit may repeat inside a cage as long as it does not repeat in a row or column.

The puzzle sits behind The Times paywall: a Times digital subscription covers it on the website and in the app, and the app also sells a puzzles-only subscription and keeps a two-week archive. It suits solvers who like sudoku-style logic with arithmetic in it, and makes a shorter companion to The Times killer sudoku.

How to play The Times KenKen

Sign in with a Times subscription and open the numbers and logic page on thetimes.com, or KenKen in the Times Puzzles app.
Note the grid size: each row and column must hold every digit from 1 to that size once.
Read each cage's target and operation; the cage's digits must make that number by adding, subtracting, multiplying or dividing.
Fill single-square cages first, since their target is the digit itself.
Work through the cages with the fewest possible combinations until every square is filled.

Tips

In a two-square subtraction or division cage, the order of the digits does not matter: a cage of 2 with a divide sign can be 1 and 2, 2 and 4, or 3 and 6.
Big multiplication targets narrow things fast: factor the target and see which digits within the grid size can make it.
Each row adds up to the same total (21 in a six by six grid), which can fix the last square of a row of cages.
A digit may repeat inside an L-shaped cage if the two copies are in different rows and columns.
Keep pencil marks for the possible pairs in each cage; when one pair is ruled out by a row, the cage often settles.

Questions

What is KenKen?

An arithmetic logic grid invented by Tetsuya Miyamoto. Each row and column holds each digit once, and each cage's digits must make its target with the operation shown.

How often does The Times publish KenKen?

A new numbered KenKen every day.

Is The Times KenKen free?

No. It needs a Times digital subscription, or a Times Puzzles subscription in the app.

Since when has The Times run KenKen?

Since March 2008.

When does a new puzzle appear?

Once a day. The Times does not state the time.