NYT Strands today — hints, spangram and answers for game #243 (Friday, November 1 2024)

NYT Strands on a cellphone
(Image credit: Tom’s Guide/NY Times/Shutterstock)
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Need a bit of help with NYT Strands today? Today's theme — "Strategy game" — is pretty easy, assuming you know the "game" that it refers to.

Below, we've compiled some useful hints for Strands #243, as well as the answers, should it come to that. We'll start off with some clues, before building up to the full answer for Strands #243, so read on if you need a little help.

Warning: Spoilers lie ahead for Strands #243.

Today's NYT Strands answer — Today's theme and hints

The official theme for NYT Strands #243 is... "Strategy game."

And here's an unofficial hint from me: "64 squares, two players, one winner."

If you're still in the dark, here are some useful words to give you those valuable clue tokens:

  • ROCK
  • DRAB
  • TRAM
  • BACKS
  • SIGN
  • TAPE
  • DORK

Still struggling? The spangram will give you a hint about the connection word. Today, it starts with 'C' and ends with 'E'.

Scroll down to find out what it is...

It's CHECKMATE.

Today's Strands answers

So, what are today's Strands answers for game #243?

Drumroll, please...

  • QUEEN
  • KING
  • PAWN
  • ROOK
  • KNIGHT
  • BISHOP
  • TIMER
  • BOARD

Strands #243

(Image credit: Alan Martin)

...and the spangram was CHECKMATE.

Strands #243

“Strategy game”

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Hi Strands fans. Today's puzzle didn't give me too many problems until right at the end, when I ran out of Chess pieces to name. I would say the last two answers are a wee bit tenuous, but see what you think.

I knew it was about Chess pretty quickly, because the 'Q' and 'U' at the bottom had me digging around there, and sure enough I found the word QUEEN. Game on.

Sure enough, KING and PAWN were both to its right, and I quickly found ROOK, KNIGHT and BISHOP all hanging around the top half of the board. This cleared enough space to fill in the spangram, which turned out to be CHECKMATE rather than anything with "chess" in the word.

I quickly ran through all the pieces in my head and realized I'd exhausted them all. And yet, there were two answers to be found, in a clump on the left-hand side of the board.

Thankfully, the two tenuous words weren't too wrapped up in each other, and detangling them was pretty easy. I got TIMER first, and that left the anagram of DOBRA to decode. It was, of course, BOARD.

Yesterday's Strands answers

Reading this in a later time zone? You can find the full article on yesterday's Strands answers for game #242 right here.

Alan Martin

Freelance contributor Alan has been writing about tech for over a decade, covering phones, drones and everything in between. Previously Deputy Editor of tech site Alphr, his words are found all over the web and in the occasional magazine too. When not weighing up the pros and cons of the latest smartwatch, you'll probably find him tackling his ever-growing games backlog. Or, more likely, playing Spelunky for the millionth time.