The New York Times' Connections puzzle for September 20, 2026 (game #1197) has been released, challenging players to group a set of words into categories. The words in today's puzzle are: TWILIGHT, SNOW, TORTILLA, SKATE, DERBY, FRIED CHICKEN, COASTER, HOVER, BLADE, BLU-RAY, BLUEGRASS, SAND DOLLAR, NEAR DARK, BOURBON, SURF, and SINNERS. Players are given hints to help them identify the correct groupings. The puzzle includes color-coded clues. For example, the "YELLOW" group is linked to "circular items," while the "GREEN" group is associated with a southern state, specifically Kentucky. The "BLUE" group hints at vampire movies, and the "PURPLE" group suggests a word that rhymes with "chord" and relates to something you ride on. After solving the puzzle, the categories were identified as follows: - **YELLOW: ROUND FLAT THINGS** includes BLU-RAY, COASTER, SAND DOLLAR, and TORTILLA. - **GREEN: ASSOCIATED WITH KENTUCKY** includes BLUEGRASS, BOURBON, DERBY, and FRIED CHICKEN. - **BLUE: VAMPIRE MOVIES** includes BLADE, NEAR DARK, SINNERS, and TWILIGHT. - **PURPLE: _____BOARDS YOU RIDE ON** includes HOVER, SKATE, SNOW, and SURF. The puzzle was considered easy, and a player achieved a perfect score. They noted that the only unfamiliar word was "SAND DOLLAR," which they initially thought was connected to Las Vegas casinos but later realized it belongs to the "ROUND FLAT THINGS" group. The article also included the answers to the previous day's puzzle, September 19, 2026 (game #1196), which had different categories such as "WIDEN ONE'S SCOPE" and "FEATURES OF A KID'S DRAWING." NYT Connections is a popular word game created by the New York Times, where players group words into categories of varying difficulty. The game allows up to four mistakes and doesn’t require solving the final group, as it can be deduced through elimination. It is available for free on the NYT Games website.