Play today's hard midi crossword free — a tougher 9×9 with trickier clues, edited by Jeff Chen (150+ NYT puzzles). No account, no paywall. A challenge the NYT Midi doesn't offer.
Free, no account, no paywall. Today's hard midi — a 9×9 with trickier clues and real misdirection — edited by Jeff Chen, constructor of 150+ New York Times crosswords.
Solved the daily midi and want more bite? This is the same 9×9 grid, built tougher: clues that lean on misdirection, sharper short fill, the kind of "?" clue that's hiding wordplay. If you find most midis a touch too gentle — including the ones that never get harder no matter what day it is — this is the one for you. (Want a free, no-paywall midi in the first place? Here's a free NYT Midi alternative.)
Not obscurity — cleverness. Bad hard puzzles bury you in trivia and rare crossings; a well-made hard midi gets you with misdirection and craft. Expect "?" clues that signal wordplay and trickier short entries, all on a 9×9 with enough room for a constructor to be sneaky. The answers stay fair — you'll smack your forehead, not open a search engine. That's the difference a human editor makes.
Like the crosswords you grew up on, the midi gets tougher as the week goes on — Monday's a gentle start and the weekend bites hardest. The grid stays a 9×9, but the clues sharpen day by day. The hard midi runs that same arc a step tougher throughout — so even Monday's hard has teeth, and the weekend is a proper workout.
Every day you get two fresh 9×9 midis: the Daily Easy midi to regular solve, and this one when you want a fight. More still? Unlimited gives you endless 9×9s at your chosen difficulty, and the Archive keeps past hard midis playable — the last 7 days free, the full run with a free account.
Same 9×9 rules, with habits that matter more when clues fight back:
Every daily midi — the Daily Easy and the Daily Hard — is edited by Jeff Chen, constructor of 150+ New York Times crosswords, longtime XWord Info analyst, and Sunday-crossword editor at Andrews McMeel Universal. Will Shortz has called his puzzles "ingenious." That's why a hard midi here is tricky, not obscure — designed difficulty, not a dialed-up generator. More about Jeff.
(Unlimited puzzles are auto-generated for infinite practice; a Chen-edited Unlimited filter is on the way. For now his hands are on the two dailies.)
Harder than the daily midi, but always fair — challenge from clever cluing and misdirection, not obscure trivia. If you solve the regular midi comfortably, you're ready.
Clue misdirection (especially “?” clues) and trickier short fill, on a 9×9 with room for a constructor to be sneaky. Tough because it's clever, not because it's obscure.
Yes. Difficulty builds Monday through Sunday — Monday gentlest, the weekend toughest — and the hard midi runs that arc a step tougher throughout. (Some midis stay the same difficulty every day; ours doesn't.)
Longer than the daily midi — figure five to eight minutes, more on weekends. The only benchmark that matters is your own yesterday.
Free forever, and no account needed to play — the past 7 days of daily puzzles are open too. Your stats and streak save locally, but local storage is per-browser and can slip if you switch devices or clear your data. A free account (just an email and password, or Google sign-in) keeps them reliable and synced, and unlocks the full daily archive back to day one. Free to play either way; the account adds durability and history, never access.
Jeff Chen, constructor of 150+ New York Times crosswords, edits both daily midis.
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