Doubled for Friday, April 12, 2024
One picture, one hidden three-word chain. The first two words make a familiar phrase, the last two make another, and the middle word belongs to both. New to the game? Read how to play first.
Hints
Open them one at a time. Each one gives away a little more than the last.
Hint 1
The answer is 3 words long, with 5, 3 and 6 letters.
Hint 2
The shared word - the one that belongs to both phrases - has 3 letters and starts with W.
Hint 3
The first phrase is 2 words, the second is 2, and they overlap on one of them.
Hint 4
A schoolyard hand game that begins with a rhyme, then the gravest charges at an international tribunal.
The answer
Stuck, or want to check? Opening this reveals the whole answer.
Reveal the answer
Thumb Crimes
Thumb war and War crimes, joined on War.
Thumb war
A thumb war is the hand game in which two players lock fingers and each tries to pin the other's thumb, opened with 'one, two, three, four, I declare a thumb war'.
War crimes
War crimes are serious breaches of the laws of war, such as attacks on civilians or mistreatment of prisoners, prosecuted at international tribunals.
How players did
Across 1,601 plays, 24% got the whole answer in one guess, 5% solved it without a miss, 17% got there after at least one wrong guess, 9% used a hint or finished on their last chance, and 44% did not get it.
This puzzle ran on April 12, 2024, April 12, 2025 and April 12, 2026.