The rules, in about a minute
Tango is a binary logic puzzle on a 6×6 grid. Fill every cell with a sun or a moon so that all four rules hold at once. Every board has exactly one solution and you never need to guess.
That is the whole game. The difficulty never comes from extra rules — it comes from how far the obvious moves carry you before they run out. The full rules, with worked examples
Why the browser is the right place for this game
Plenty of puzzles are worth installing. Tango is not one of them, and that is a compliment to the puzzle rather than a criticism.
The entire game is a 6×6 grid of buttons, four rules and a timer. There is no rendering budget to speak of, no assets to stream, no save file worth keeping. Everything a native app would give you here, a browser tab already does — which means the install, the storage, the permissions prompt and the update cycle all buy you nothing.
What you get instead is the thing that actually matters for a puzzle you play in gaps: zero friction between wanting to play and playing. A link opens a board. No store page, no 40 MB, no "allow notifications".
Everything runs on your device
This is worth stating plainly because "online game" usually implies the opposite.
The board generator and both solvers are JavaScript running in your own tab. When you press New Game, your browser builds a fresh grid, verifies it has exactly one solution, and draws it — without asking a server for anything. Your moves, your solve times and the boards you were given are never uploaded, because there is nowhere for them to go. The game also writes nothing to your device: no saved progress, no local storage, no cookie for gameplay.
There is an easy way to prove this to yourself. Load this page, then turn off your wi-fi and keep playing. Undo, hint, solve, press New Game — it all keeps working with the connection gone, because none of it ever needed the network. (Reload the tab and you will of course need the connection back to fetch the page again, and you will get a brand new puzzle.)
The one trade-off: since nothing is stored, closing the tab mid-board loses that board. In exchange you never have a history to clear and never wonder what a puzzle site knows about you.
On a phone
Tango is a better phone puzzle than most, because the interaction is a single tap and the grid is small enough to stay readable in one hand.
Tap any cell to cycle through empty, sun and moon. The board and the toolbar resize for the screen, so you are not pinching to zoom or hunting for a control that fell off the edge. On desktop you additionally get right-click to cycle backwards, which saves two taps when you overshoot.
If you play often, add the page to your home screen from the browser menu — it opens straight to a fresh board, which is the only thing an installed app would have given you anyway.
This version versus the official daily one
The Tango you may have met on LinkedIn is one board per day, behind a sign-in, with a streak. It is built to be a shared daily ritual and it is good at that.
This is an independent version of the same puzzle type, built for the other mood — when you want to play three in a row on a train, or drill hard boards until the technique sticks, and do not want to sign in to a professional network to do it. Same rules, no account, no cap. How unlimited generation works here
The puzzle itself is older than either version, incidentally. It is a variant of the binary determination puzzle known as Takuzu or Binairo, which is why the logic will feel familiar if you have played those. Binairo compared with Tango
Frequently asked questions
Can I play the Tango game online for free?
Yes. The board above is the full game — free, no signup, no download, no daily limit. Pick a difficulty and press New Game.
Do I need to download an app to play Tango online?
No. Tango is a 6×6 grid of buttons and a bit of logic, which a browser handles perfectly well. Nothing to install, no storage taken on your device, no permissions to grant.
Does playing Tango online send my board to a server?
No. The puzzle is generated and checked by JavaScript running in your own browser tab. Nothing about your board, your moves or your solve time is uploaded, and the game stores nothing on your device either.
Can I play Tango online on my phone?
Yes. The board and controls resize for phone and tablet screens. Tap a cell to cycle through empty, sun and moon — the same game as on desktop, in the mobile browser you already have.
Do I need a LinkedIn account to play Tango online?
Not for this version. LinkedIn's official Tango asks you to sign in and gives one puzzle per day. This is an independent fan-made version of the same puzzle type, with no account and no daily cap.
What happens if my connection drops mid-puzzle?
Nothing. Once the page has loaded, the game needs no further network access — you can keep solving and even generate new boards with the connection gone. Reloading the tab does start a fresh puzzle, though.