“Yin Yang” from “Amygdala” was our second grid for 2026.

Stats: 56 solvers attempted this puzzle.  37 solvers managed to complete the puzzle and the bonus forms. One solver did not complete the bonus form. Only 29 solvers got the full score.

Try the puzzle here
(Annotations will be visible on solving the puzzle or on clicking “Reveal Grid”. Logged in solvers can see their submissions as well)

Bonus Questions:

1. Enter all YIN answers as two words with ampersand in-between
   
   Ans

   1. Yin 1 – (4 & 6): BAIT & SWITCH

   2. Yin 2 – (6 & 6): SPEECH & DEBATE

   3. Yin 3 – (4 & 10): REST & RELAXATION

   4. Yin 4 – (4 & 10): LEWD & LASCIVIOUS

   5. Yin 5 – (6 & 8): RAGTAG & BOBTAILS

   6. Yin 6 – (6 & 9): TARRED & FEATHERED

   7. Yin 7 – (6 & 9): LADIES & GENTLEMEN

2. YANG 1 and 2
   
   Ans

   1. Yang 1: LIPS

   2. Yang 2: SCISSORS
   

Here’s the list of Top Scorers (For the full list, please check the Leaderboard in the Hall of Fame)

Out of 56 solvers,  38 completed and submitted the grid, of which 37 submitted bonus forms. Only 29  got the full score. Each of the following scored 157 points (Grid Score – 148,  Bonus – 9).

Abhay Phadnis
Al Sanders
Arun Hiregange
Arvind Ramaswamy
Ashit Hegde
Ian J VanderSchee
Jose A
jyothishb
Krittibas Dasgupta
Lakshmi Prakash
Madhup Tewari
Madhusudan H Rao
Max Jackson
Mona Sogal
NARAYANAN R
Nilesh Parmar
Panyam Tejas
Prakash Arumugam
Ramachandra Nagendra Prasad
Ramki Krishnan
Ratna Rao
Ratnakumar V
samit kallianpur
Sandhya Paruchuri
Shobha Nayak
Sparsh Sinha
Steve Gunter
Supriya Mithal
Venkatraghavan S

Congrats to the toppers and to all the solvers who participated.

Grid Rating: The puzzle got a good rating of 8.7. It was rated a perfect 10 by 7 out of the 37 folks who voted (19%). The lowest rating was 7.

Favourite Clues:  The Top clues were

1. 1A What you may want to scratch after directions change (6) 11 votes
2. 17A Decorated fellow held out liberating the last POW (9) 10 votes
3. 9A Relax in sleeveless tops (4) 10 votes
4. 25A Bond grabs American weapon creating diversion (10) 9 votes
5. 16D Pawns want to kill king with openers (7) 8 votes

Thanks Amygdala for an entertaining puzzle with many fresh and interesting clues. Fun theme and a dense grid fill maximising it. Looking forward to more from you.

PS: The solvers comments are in the comments thread in the post itself.