Puzzle #1 · 2026-09-28
Links must alternate between a shared team and a shared college, starting with a shared team.
This is puzzle #1, for 2026-09-28. Today's objective reads: “Links must alternate between a shared team and a shared college, starting with a shared team.” Par is 3 links, which is the number of connections in the shortest chain that still satisfies that objective. Beat par and the score climbs; run long and it drops. A new puzzle goes live every day at midnight Eastern, and every earlier puzzle stays playable in the archive.
The Chains is a daily sports connection puzzle. You are given a Start player and a Finish player, and you build a chain of real NBA players that links one to the other. Each neighboring pair in your chain has to share a shared NBA team (in any season) or a shared college. You type a name, pick it from the suggestions, and keep going until a legal pick connects straight to the Finish, at which point the chain completes itself.
Because college counts as a link, a chain can hop from a Lakers guard to a former Kentucky teammate who never played in Los Angeles, then on to a Celtics forward. Franchises count as one team through every move and rename, so a Sonics player and a Thunder player share a team.
Every connector you name earns a rarity tier, from Common up to Unicorn. The tier is not about how famous a player is in general. It measures how surprising it is that you named this player for this specific connection, compared with everyone else who could have legally filled the same spot. Naming a Hall of Famer through a team full of stars can score Common, while finding the one recognizable name behind a quiet connection can score Legendary. Read the full scoring and tier rules on the How to Play page.
The player pool covers every NBA player who appeared in a regular-season game from 1979-80 to today, drawn from the NBA's own public statistics. Puzzles are generated by a program, then checked by a separate solver that confirms each one can actually be completed at the stated par and that the objective is satisfiable. Read more about how the game is made on the About page.