The rules of Tango
Your finished grid has to follow four rules:
- Every cell holds a sun or a moon.
- Each row and each column has three suns and three moons.
- No more than two of the same symbol sit next to each other, across or down.
- Cells joined by an = sign match. Cells joined by a × sign are opposite.
How to solve Tango
Each example below is a single row. Outlined cells are the ones the move decides. The same moves work on columns.
1. Close off a pair
Two suns side by side can't have a third sun next to them, so the cells on both ends of the pair must be moons. The same goes for two moons.
2. Fill the sandwich
When two suns sit one cell apart, the cell between them must be a moon. A sun there would make three in a row.
3. Count to three
Once a row has three suns, it has all the suns it can hold. Every empty cell left in that row is a moon.
4. Follow the signs
A sign passes information along. An = next to a sun makes another sun. A × next to a sun makes a moon. Signs can chain, so one filled cell can settle several.
5. Read a × as one of each
A × between two empty cells means one sun and one moon, even before you know which is which. Here the row already has two suns, so it needs one more. The × pair will supply it, so the other empty cell must be a moon.
Tango, Takuzu and Binairo
Tango is built on a puzzle that has been around for years under other names, most often Takuzu or Binairo. Those use 0s and 1s instead of suns and moons, with the same balance and no-three-in-a-row rules. Classic Takuzu adds one more: no two rows, and no two columns, can be identical. Tango doesn't state that rule, but every practice board on this page follows it anyway. Tango's = and × signs are the twist that makes it LinkedIn's own.