Step-by-step hints and answers for Connections #1213, from Tuesday, October 6, 2026.
Proper nouns crowd this Tuesday board, and several of them feel as if they belong together for a reason that turns out to be wrong. That shared feeling is the problem: the names scatter once you look at what each one is doing in its own set. Lock in the set you are surest of, keep the trickiest four for last, and do not trust a group just because it looks like a list you have seen before.
Open one step at a time. Step three names the group, so stop earlier if you want more of a challenge. New to the game? Read how to play Connections first, or see what the four colors mean.
Most direct
Think of big names in banking and investing, known by a shorter nickname.
Each is the everyday short name of a big name in banking or investing, the way people drop the second half of a long company name.
Financial firms, for short
Fairly direct
Think of places to sit, from a porch to a design museum.
Each is a style of seat: one is slatted for the lawn, one has tall side panels, one is a mid-century classic and one has a spindle back.
Kinds of chairs
Takes some thought
Think of road trips and the signs you see beside the highway at night.
Add the word for a small lodging after each one to get a well-known hotel chain.
___ Inn hotels
Trickiest
Each of these has something you might list on a resume tucked inside it.
The last few letters of each word spell a gift or aptitude someone might have, such as a flair for music.
Ending in talents
Solvers who know the Northeast tend to pounce on CATSKILL, ADIRONDACK, BERKSHIRE and HAMPTON as a set of weekend getaways from New York City: three ranges of mountains and hills, plus the beach towns of Long Island. That set is never part of the solution. Before you book the trip, ask what each of those names could mean far away from a map.
More ways to dodge red herrings: our Connections tips.
Some meanings point toward a group, so they stay hidden until you open them.
This section shows all four groups. Only open it if you're finished or ready to give up.
BERKSHIRE, CITI, GOLDMAN, MERRILL
Shortened names of big finance companies: BERKSHIRE (Berkshire Hathaway, the holding company long run by Warren Buffett), CITI (Citigroup), GOLDMAN (Goldman Sachs) and MERRILL (Merrill Lynch, now part of Bank of America).
ADIRONDACK, EAMES, WINDSOR, WINGBACK
Styles of chair: the ADIRONDACK lawn chair, the EAMES lounge chair, the spindle-backed WINDSOR and the high-sided WINGBACK.
COMFORT, DAYS, HAMPTON, HOLIDAY
Each word comes before INN to name a hotel chain: COMFORT Inn, DAYS Inn, HAMPTON Inn and HOLIDAY Inn.
CATSKILL, KNICKKNACK, PIANOFORTE, STABILITY
Each word ends in a word for talent: catSKILL hides SKILL, knickKNACK hides KNACK, pianoFORTE hides FORTE and stABILITY hides ABILITY.
The chairs are the cleanest way in: WINGBACK and EAMES mean nothing else here, ADIRONDACK leaves the getaway list for the porch, and WINDSOR makes four. DAYS and HOLIDAY need Inn after them, which pulls in HAMPTON and COMFORT. Put BERKSHIRE beside CITI, GOLDMAN and MERRILL as a finance name, and the four leftovers each finish on a talent: SKILL, KNACK, FORTE and ABILITY.
Want to get better at spotting groups? Start with what the four colors mean.
Answers checked against the official answers by Alan. This puzzle appeared on Tuesday, October 6, 2026.
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