Roux, an anagram chain built on three letters

Roux is a chain of nine answers with a base that does not change. Three letters are shown at the top of the puzzle, and all three are in every answer from the first to the last, however much the rest of the word moves around them.

How it plays

Each answer is an anagram of those next to it with a letter added or removed. Steps that only add or drop a letter don't count, so REVEAL to LEAVE is a step and LEAVER to LEVER is not.

The three letters cut down what each answer can be. Whatever arrives or goes at a step, it is never one of those three, so you only ever have to think about the letters around them.

Roux's answers run longer than most, usually from four letters up to eight or nine, and the chain can rise and fall.

A worked example

This chain was made up for this page and is shorter than a real Roux. Its three letters are A, E and S, marked in every answer. It comes from no day's puzzle.

1. Where the sun risesEASTthe first answer
2. Take without askingSTEALan L arrives
3. Went on, as a stormLASTEDa D arrives
4. Fine pointsDETAILSan I arrives
5. Went by boatSAILEDthe T goes

The A, E and S stay through every answer. EAST gains an L for STEAL, then a D for LASTED, then an I for DETAILS. The last step takes the T away, and SAILED is what is left.

Tips

• Put the three letters in first, in your head or in the anagram rack, and build each answer around them.
• When an answer seems to need one of the three letters to go, it is the wrong answer.
• Longer answers can hide a lot of rearranging. Read the clue for the sense first, then check the letters.
• The anagram rack opens with the three letters already in it, and they stay there while you move the rest about.

Roux in the day's four

Omeletter sets four puzzles a day, chosen from its nine games, and every game comes round at least once in any three days. New puzzles appear at 05:00 UTC, which is mid-afternoon in Sydney and early morning in London.

You start with fifty hints in the app and five on the website, and you earn another for every puzzle you solve. On this website you can play today and the two days before it. The app keeps every day you open while it is free.

Play today's puzzles

On the App Store and Google Play.

The other games

• Fold
• Soufflé
• Flip
• Reduction
• Double Yolk
• Scratch
• Fork
• Lattice

All nine are explained side by side on How to play, and every answer comes from the word list.