'Enjoying monotony helps': how to take on the world in competitive jigsaw puzzling | Puzzle games | The Guardian

2024.02.07 21:05


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'Enjoying monotony helps': how to take on the world in competitive jigsaw puzzling

This article is more than 3 years old

Australian D’Arne Healy, on the joy of puzzling and the tension of the global tournament, where rivals help pick each others’ pieces off the floor

Melissa Davey @MelissaLDavey Fri 15 May 2020 22.00 CEST Last modified on Sat 16 May 2020 03.03 CEST

I t was the comments that planted the seed in D’Arne Healy’s mind that she might become a competitive jigsaw puzzler. Whenever she would do puzzles with friends and family, they’d react to her with a combination of envy and awe.

“The comments coming from onlookers were getting repetitive, like ‘how did you do that so quickly?’,” she says. “They would say things like, ‘I take weeks, and you’ve just done it in a couple of hours.’ ‘That is so amazing, how you do that?’ I started to wonder if I really was fast at doing puzzles, and the only way to find out was to race against another puzzler.”

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Healy, from Perth, Australia, began to research puzzle competitions and found most were overseas, in places such as Belgium or the US. But it was the World Jigsaw Puzzle Championships in Spain that caught her eye. The inaugural event was held in September 2019. Organised by the World Jigsaw Puzzle Federation, it marked the first time competitors would receive a world ranking. Healy grabbed a fellow puzzle-enthusiast friend and they packed their puzzle piece sorters and magnifying glasses, and headed to the event at the Millennium Dome in Valladolid.

“There were competitors from all over the world speaking different languages,” the 44-year-old recalls. “Some were wearing team outfits, some had their country flags on display. Being the first Australians to ever compete, we were treated like celebrities, everyone wanted their photo with us and were fascinated that we had travelled so far. We were invited to compete in a jigsaw puzzle competition in Turkey.”

Healy was seated in the front row, close to the video cameras streaming the event. She was so nervous, she began to hum to herself. “The man next to me started growling, I guess that was his way of calming himself,” she says.

View image in fullscreen Jigsaw world championship in full swing at Valladolid in Spain. D’Arne Healy placed 79th. Photograph: D'Arne Healy

The competition goes over two days, with more than 1,000 competitors from 40 countries. Day one is the teams category. Teams of four or five have eight hours to complete four puzzles ranging from 1,000 to 1,500 pieces. Only four people can be puzzling in a team at one time, so the fifth person acts as a sub. On day two, the individual category takes place to find the world’s fastest puzzler. Competitors have a maximum of two hours to complete the same 500-piece, previously unreleased puzzle. Whoever finishes first is the winner. Those who don’t complete their puzzle in the required time have their remaining pieces counted to determine their ranking.

There are not too many rules, Healy says, apart from the obvious, like no tampering with other competitors’ puzzles. The clock does not stop for toilet breaks or snack breaks. The lengthy sitting and reaching for pieces is tough on the back. Competitions vary as to the tools competitors are allowed to use, such as lamps, but puzzle piece sorters are usually allowed.

I find in general the biggest puzzle communities and best puzzlers are in the countries with the longest and coldest winters D'Arne Healy

But competitions are not without controversy. During the world championship, an official knocked a whole corner of a competitor’s puzzle onto the floor.

“You could have heard a pin drop when it happened,” Healy says. “Everyone froze, with a look of ‘what do we do?’ on the their faces. And people were trying to decide, is it the competitor’s fault for having the puzzle hanging off the table? Do we stop the clock? It was decided it was the competitor’s fault, but lots of people helped them pick the pieces up so they could keep going.

“I have heard of other competitions where in a children’s division, a little boy pinched some pieces of the little girls’ puzzle. There is always the drama of a final piece missing.”

Healy ranked 79th, completing the Ravensburger puzzle titled Elephant Family in one hour 45 minutes. Jane Hanzelkova of the Czech Republic won, completing the puzzle in 46 minutes 35 seconds. Competitors from Russia, Spain and Poland made up the top four.

View image in fullscreen D’Arne Healy, Australian competitive jigsaw player Photograph: D'arne Healy

“I find in general the biggest puzzle communities and best puzzlers are in the countries with the longest and coldest winters,” Healy says.

Buoyed by the welcoming and thrilling experience of the Spanish championships, Healy founded the Australian Jigsaw Puzzle Association in December. She is organising the inaugural Australian competition , to be held in Melbourne in November, Covid-19 allowing. It will be something for her to look forward to if the world event, scheduled for September, again in Valladolid, is cancelled because of the pandemic.

Healy says there has been a surge in group members due to Covid-19, with people sharing their completed puzzles and asking for tips on the association’s Facebook page. Puzzles have been selling out in stores around the world , as people look for hobbies to keep them occupied during the social distancing requirements and travel restrictions of the pandemic.

“I think the increase in popularity is wonderful and does not surprise me because I know why puzzles are great, and it’s about time that others worked it out too,” Healy says.

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“I personally love the relaxation of doing a jigsaw puzzle. The world and all its stresses just drifts away as you get lost in your jigsaw puzzle. It slows my thoughts down, gives me a bit of ‘me’ time and with every piece that goes together, I get a little hit of joy. So by the end of a 500 piece puzzle, you’ve had 500 hits of happiness what’s not to like about that?”

D’Arne Healy answers common jigsaw puzzle questions

What should I do if I am a beginner, and over-ambitiously bought a 1,000 piece puzzle?

Clear your table so you only have the puzzle on it and make sure you have twice as much space as you first thought.

Turn every piece over picture side up on your table.

Put the edges in one pile to the side.

Put your edges together, following the image on the box.

Stand back and take a good look at your puzzle pieces, you will find that patterns and distinct colours will stand out. Take those pieces and start working on them.

Push all the other pieces to the side and when you’ve hit a wall with the part you were working on, find another colour that pops and work on that. The secret is to see your puzzle as lots of smaller puzzles, not that overwhelming spray of mumble jumble in front of you. Also, expect it to take a long time, enjoy the process.

What makes a great puzzle?

A great puzzle for me has to have just enough challenge to it to make me feel accomplished at the end. The image has to be pleasing to the eye. The quality of the puzzle is important or those 500 hits of happiness end up being hits of frustration if the pieces don’t click like they should, or the pieces are falling apart before your eyes.

Is it true that you should always start with the edges?

“In most cases starting with the edges is a good idea, however if the edges are all identical, which is the case in a puzzle with a border, then I would personally save them to do last.”

What should I do to practise if I want to compete?

The more puzzles you do, the more experience you get and I guess the better you become. When competitive puzzling becomes something you are interested in, you start to naturally approach your puzzles slightly differently.

For starters, you begin to time every puzzle you do, you become more open to doing images or styles that you wouldn’t normally choose, just in case that is the style that will be the competition puzzle.

I also practice moving faster when sorting the pieces at the beginning. In a normal week, I probably average one or two puzzles a weekend. I enjoy watching other people’s time lapse videos of themselves doing puzzles to see if they have a technique that I can adopt to speed things up a bit.

Enjoying monotony helps.

Where do you shop for your puzzles?

I don’t have a large collection of jigsaw puzzles as I donate them to charity shops when I’m done. I don’t do many more than once. I purchase from all sorts of retails stores, it just takes a puzzle to jump out at me … an image can just resonate with you.

“When I am preparing for a competition, I will raid charity stores and buy whatever they have.”

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