I never could get into online jigsaws because, for me, the joy of doing a jigsaw puzzle comes from physically turning around a puzzle piece in my hand. I admit that when I do puzzles online, I miss the tactile aspect of the experience.
If any readers know of a place that offers free logic puzzles with grids to fill in online, please let me know. (Subscribe to this newsletter, which has a few worthy puzzles among its ads, at .) However, with these options I have to provide my own paper to figure out the puzzles – no online grids. I have found a few sites that offer a limited number of logic puzzles (such as, which also has semi-rare acrostic puzzles), and ArcaMax’s daily games newsletter occasionally has a logic puzzle as its brain teaser, another free way to keep my mind sharp. Sadly, I have yet to find an online version of my beloved logic puzzles. (It is identical to the one that appears in many newspapers nationwide.) Online, it is a timed game that gives bonus points for a quick solution. Though jumbles aren’t my favorite type of puzzle, those who enjoy them will find the daily jumble with an associated cartoon riddle at. Doing cryptograms online has the advantage of automatically filling in all the matching letters in the puzzle, so I don’t miss any, as I sometimes do on paper.
When the Sunday paper’s cryptogram isn’t enough to keep my deciphering skills current for the week, I can go to for free cryptograms, each accompanied by statistics that include an average solve time, so I can measure my own skills against those of the typical cryptogram fan. I don’t have to print it out, it automatically shows all number possibilities, and I can make notations of possibilities in individual squares just as I would do on paper. I was thrilled when I found the daily kakuro puzzle at.
Plus printing is a bit of a hassle, especially when I only have a few minutes to spend on a puzzle. (as in the “for Dummies” books) offers free daily kakuro and sudoko, but you have to print out the puzzles, and the cost of the ink and paper for my printer would cost nearly as much as pre-printed puzzle books. Kakuro, being less popular than crosswords or sudoko, was harder for me to find online. One downside to the Yahoo! Games site is the loud and annoying video advertisements, which slow down the puzzles’ loading. The sudoko puzzle allows users to see all possibilities and make notations it also prevents wrong answers from being placed in squares.
Its Word Roundup game is a bit like a traditional word find, but it gives categories (“three flying insects”) rather than exact words (“bee,” “moth,” “fly”). Yahoo’s site also offers free daily jigsaw puzzles, sudoko, and other free puzzles/games. Plus I can see my mistakes immediately and can set a timer to compete against myself.
It’s not too hard or too easy, and it gives me the opportunity to fill in just the one letter or word I’m stuck on without having to risk seeing adjacent words I still think I can figure out (which often happens when I peek in the answers section of a puzzle book). Like many games sites that provide limited free downloads alongside paid subscriptions or extended games, Yahoo! offers a great free daily crossword in its Games section. I remind myself that I already have access to more puzzles than I have time to do – all for free on the Internet. My local newspaper carries kakuro only on Sundays and doesn’t have logic puzzles at all, so I’m often fighting temptation to buy a logic puzzle or kakuro books when I see one in a store.
My favorites are logic puzzles (the type that usually come with a grid in the Penny Press Logic Puzzles magazine), kakuro, and crosswords.