Gordian's Knot
by Binary Arts


I picked this up the other day, and realizing that the solution guide was mega-pages long, I decided to go ahead and cheat instead of trying to figure out all 65 moves by myself. Then I kept screwing up somewhere in the middle; as it turned out my booklet was missing a few pages!

So I had no choice but to take the interlocking puzzle apart on my own, but now with a lot less steps than the original 65. My full-blown solution is about 35 steps long, but for now I'm only going as far as removing the first piece (yellow). Afterwards, the puzzle becomes loose enough to take apart without too much instruction; but just in case you get stuck, the next piece to go for is purple, followed by blue, red and finally green.

In this solution, the only piece that never moves is the purple one. Because of that, it would be a good idea to hold onto the purple piece with one hand, while sliding the other pieces around with your other hand. Before starting, hold the puzzle just like the picture above, with the yellow piece on the front side facing you.

If the puzzle ever "jams up", chances are the red piece got knocked out of place. In this case, make sure that the red piece is either pushed all the way back (steps 1 thru 18) or all the way up front (steps 19 thru 32).


1. Slide the orange piece left.

2. Slide the green piece away from you.

3. Slide the orange piece right.

Note: This is exactly how the solution book starts off.

4. Push the yellow piece down.

5. Pull the yellow piece left
(with the blue and orange pieces in tow).

6. Pull the yellow piece up.

7. Slide the blue piece to the right (by 2 units, with yellow in tow) so that yellow's base is in front of red's equator.

8. Slide the orange piece right (also by 2 units) so that orange's slot is directly below yellow's base.

9. Push the yellow piece down.

10. Slide the blue piece left.

11. Pull the yellow piece up, locking it in place.

12. Slide the blue and orange pieces so that their gaps are lined up in front of red's left slot.

13. Slide the green piece towards you.

14. Slide the yellow piece (with blue in tow) right.

15. Push the yellow piece down (by 1 unit); now the yellow piece is loose and can freely slide along the blue piece.

16. Walk the yellow piece away from you (in a zig-zag manner) until yellow's spine is at blue's rightmost-back hole.

17. Pull the yellow piece up, locking it in place.

18. Slide the blue and orange pieces so that their gaps are lined up in front of red's vertical bar.

19. Slide the red piece towards you.

20. Slide the orange piece left.

21. Slide the blue piece right.

22. Push the yellow piece down (by 1 unit); once again, the yellow piece is loose.

23. Rotate the yellow piece clockwise, so that its gaps are pointing downward. Now, line up the yellow gaps with any blue edge and merely free the yellow piece by lifting it upwards.


Continuing on, without the graphics...

24. Slide the blue piece left.
25. Slide the green piece away from you.
26. Slide the orange piece right.
27. Push the red piece down.
28. Remove the purple piece by sliding it off to the right.

29. Push the red piece up.
30. Swing the green piece (like a gate) so that it juts out to the left. Set the puzzle down and jiggle the pieces slightly loose.
31. Turn the blue piece clockwise, and slip its gap through green's edge, then through red's neck, freeing the piece.
32. Remove the red piece by dropping it through orange's front slot.
33. Remove the green piece.


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