TikiTaka

TikiTaka is a passing puzzle set on a tactical board. One team, a wall of defenders, a ball, and a single sequence that finds each teammate exactly once before ending in the net. No football knowledge required: everything you need is shown on the field. Each defender covers a circle, and a passing line that clips that circle is intercepted, with the ball not moving. The trap comes from your own passes: lines already played become obstacles, so a pass that is perfectly legal when you make it can leave you with no way out three passes later. Each day has five boards, each with one more player than the previous, from five to nine, under the names Warm-up, Build-up, Total Football, High Press and Final Third.

1. Drag the ball from the player who has it to the player you want to give it to in order to draw the pass.
2. Pass to each teammate exactly once and only once, without returning to a player already served and without leaving anyone out.
3. Avoid the defenders' circles and already drawn pass lines, including for the final shot, which must also be clean.
4. Have the last player you passed to take the shot, then move on to the next board, which lines up one more player.

The idea of a football puzzle with no question of football culture is already a neat find. The real idea is that your own passes become walls: that turns a simple pathfinding task into an ordering problem, where the best first pass is often the one that looks least useful. Five boards per day, one more player each time, draws a fair rise in difficulty in a single session, with the final board really asking you to keep everything in mind. And the published rule describes a readable penalty: a pass line that clips a defender's circle is cut, and the ball stays where it is.

The board header keeps live counts: a score, a pass counter against the expected total, a TURNOVERS counter and a clock. The published rule explains what happens to a failed pass: the line that clips a defender's circle is cut and the ball stays where it is, which makes the error visible without being punitive. Below the board are three buttons, Undo, Reset and Hint.

The day's five boards

A daily series of five combinations, from Warm-up to Final Third, with a team that grows by one player on each board, from five to nine.

Archive

The archive button is labeled "sign in": replaying past days requires an account, which is also used to save your streak and to publish your score.

Weekly leaderboard

A week-dated leaderboard shown beneath the game, where you only appear by playing the day's puzzle and agreeing to public ranking.

• Order is everything in this puzzle. A pass isn't judged good when you play it but when it traps you later: before drawing, look at which area of the field the line will cut off for subsequent moves.
• The final shot is set up from the start. The last player you pass to is the one who shoots, and their shot must also get through: choosing a poorly placed finisher means losing after doing everything else right.
• Defenders don't block a point but a disc. A pass that brushes a defender without touching them is still intercepted if it enters their circle.
• Undo, Reset and Hint are placed below the board, and the header contains a TURNOVERS counter which the page does not say what increments.