What is speed puzzling? Speed jigsaw puzzling, or competitive puzzling, is the best sport you’ve never heard of, and it’s taking the world by storm. Puzzling is typically known as a very leisurely activity, but speed puzzling is anything but! Imagine a room full of puzzlers racing against the clock and each other to complete a jigsaw puzzle in record time.
Puzzle contests have been popping up at local libraries, bars and fundraisers, and the national and international competitions are growing every year. Livestreams attract viewers from all over the world and speed puzzling has even made it to broadcast television in 2024 with the Tournament of Pieces at Origins Game Fair airing on ESPN2.
New people are continually joining in on the challenge and unknown phenoms emerge regularly, surprising everyone and themselves with their speed. Could you be the next speed puzzling star? Read on to learn how speed puzzling competitions work, get tips to increase your speed and explore resources to get started and improve your performance.
Speed puzzling events may have divisions of Individuals, Pairs and Teams (of 3 to 4 people). Larger competitions often have preliminary qualifying rounds with the fastest finishers from each moving onto final rounds (some also have semi-finals).
Each individual, pair or team is given their own copy of the same jigsaw puzzle, hidden in an opaque bag. After a short countdown, puzzlers are able to open up their bags and boxes and start puzzling. The goal is to complete the puzzle as fast as you can, so of course, the first individual/pair/team to finish wins!
Prizes are awarded to the top several finishers in each category and may include puzzles, puzzle accessories, non-puzzle related prizes and, at larger competitions, cash prizes.
You don’t have to be an experienced puzzler to join a competition! The speed puzzling community is extremely friendly and welcoming. The atmosphere at contests is a bit like the show The Great British Bake Off. Although you’re competing, everyone is very supportive and encouraging of one another, making for a great environment for beginning speed puzzlers!
Most competitions have entry fees and participants get to keep the puzzles they work on. Some competitions or rounds use previously released puzzles while some of the larger ones use new, unreleased puzzles to ensure no one has an advantage from having seen and/or done the puzzle before.
There are local, regional, national and international events as well as contests run online, so chances are you can fairly easily find a speed puzzling competition near you or at least one you can participate in!
Rules can be a little different from competition to competition, and organizers will usually send a complete list of them before the event, so make sure to read them carefully. But let’s dive into some of the more common rules.
Puzzlers have a limited amount of time to work on a puzzle. Common time limits are:
> Individuals: 2 hours for a 500-piece puzzle
> Pairs: 2 hours for a 500-piece puzzle, 2.5 hours for a 1000-piece puzzle
> Teams: 3 hours for two 1000-piece puzzles
Puzzlers who complete their puzzles within the time limit are ranked by time. Participants who don’t finish within the time limit will have their remaining unplaced pieces counted and are ranked by that count. Many competitions consider groups of 3 or more pieces correctly assembled to be part of the completed puzzle, so these won’t add to your count of remaining pieces.
Competitors can typically bring and use a box top holder and sorting tray(s). Sorting trays are limited in number based on the division (Individuals, Pairs, Teams) and cannot exceed the maximum dimensions. No other tools or aids are allowed, such as lights, table risers, scoops, printed or digital templates, etc.
Participants can’t open or manipulate the bag with the puzzle in it before start time.
Competitors may not disturb other participants, whether that is through interfering with their space or puzzle, singing or talking too loudly, or any other activity that may cause disturbance. Headphones are allowed as long as they are not playing loudly enough to disturb other participants. However, there are some contests that play music in the venue.
Spectators are not allowed in the competition space. Only competitors, judges and event organizers are allowed once the competition starts.
Once the time limit is reached, participants must stop puzzling and may not continue to manipulate or place pieces.
Some events have a minimum age requirement to participate, which is why a few have junior divisions for younger speedsters. Some competitions allow younger participants to compete as part of a pair or team but not in the Individuals division.
Do a lot of puzzles and track your times. It may seem obvious, but the more puzzles you do, the more you can build that speed puzzling muscle, find techniques that work for you and figure out your strengths and weaknesses. Many speed puzzling veterans consider 1 hour and 30 minutes to be fast to complete an average 500-piece puzzle — you’ve got good potential. And finishing in 1 hour puts you among the more competitive speed puzzlers.
Do a wide variety of puzzles. Challenge yourself with puzzles you wouldn’t normally do, including and especially those with elements that are weaknesses for you. Many puzzlers dread opening the bag and seeing fur or grass. Some puzzlers struggle with solid color sections while others shine. Figure out what your challenges are and tackle them head on.
Don’t get stuck on one thing too long or hunt for 1 specific piece. That eats up time. Move onto something else and trust that the pieces will turn up eventually. You know how sometimes taking a break from a puzzle for a bit can help you come back fresh and spot things you missed before? You can’t really walk away or take breaks while you’re speed puzzling, but shifting your attention to different areas of the puzzle can have a similar benefit.
Switch it up! Try assembling edges first, then doing them last (sometimes if the edges are hard, that makes the most sense anyway), then going back and forth from edges to other sections. Test if doing a little more sorting up front gets you better results, or maybe you need to spend less time sorting. What are different ways you can make use of sorting trays?
Watch other speed puzzlers and pick up their techniques. There are a number of YouTubers who share tips and speed puzzlers who post videos on social media. Some even offer coaching. Many larger national and international competitions livestream their events and also have those videos available to watch later.
If you know the brand that will be used in competition, practice a lot of puzzles from that brand to get familiar with the piece sizes and cuts.
Mixing in some casual puzzling in between speed practice can help you avoid burnout and still develop skills that will help you in speed contests.
Strengthen your back muscles and stretch. Speed puzzling is definitely physical! You need to have strength and stamina to stand and bend over a puzzle for hours, especially if you are doing several rounds in a day. Standing often gives you a better vantage point to see the pieces and overall image, which may contribute to speedier times. So being able to perform physically can make a big difference.
You may not always have time to do speed puzzling practice of a full 500-piece puzzle in one sitting, but you can still sharpen your skills and improve your overall time by doing smaller exercises and drills that you can squeeze in when you can.
For speed, you need to be able to scan pieces quickly, so having them all face up is essential. And even if you don’t assemble edges first, they’re easy to spot and separating them out reduces the number of pieces you have to look through for other sections. Aim to get this stage done in about 4 minutes - that puts you on par with the top speed puzzlers. Work your way towards that by starting with getting under 6 minutes, then under 5 and so on.
You don’t necessarily get faster at completing 500-piece puzzles by just practicing with 500-piece puzzles. Speed puzzling 100 to 300-piece puzzles can help improve your piece per minute (PPM), which gives you a feel for how fast you can or should be moving.
Calculate your PPM by dividing the number of pieces by your time to complete it. You can look up rankings on competition websites to calculate other people’s PPM and get a sense of what to aim for.
In competition, you’re usually completing 1000-piece puzzles in a Pair or Team, not as an individual. Individual rounds are usually 500 pieces. But practicing individually with a larger count puzzle can build that stamina you need to make it through a 500-piece more easily.
When you’re speed puzzling with a partner or team, there are definitely a lot more things to think about and prepare for than when you’re puzzling by yourself. Some speed puzzlers even prefer competing in Pairs and Teams because they feel less pressure and have more fun.
If you’re going to compete with others, discuss ahead of time how you’ll work together. You may also want to think about some of these things in deciding who to team up with in the first place to make sure you’ll work well with each other. During the competition, communicating throughout helps you coordinate efforts and make sure you’re not getting in each other’s way too much. And of course, practice together if you can! Here are some things to think about:
What are each person’s strengths and weaknesses? You want to complement each other. Where one person has challenges, another team member may have strengths that can make up for those.
How will you divide up tasks? For example, who will open the outer bag, who will open the box, who will tear open the bag of pieces, etc.? Who will build the edge? Who will do more sorting?
While you’re puzzling, keep talking to each other about what you’re working on so you aren’t all trying to do the same thing at once and can pass each other pieces for your respective sections. You can also talk about changing up your strategy or switching places to get fresh eyes. And when someone gets frustrated or discouraged, you can keep each other’s spirits up with encouragement or jokes!
So, are you ready to give this speed puzzling thing a try? Here are some resources to find events, more tips and tools.
Try going to the Events section on Facebook and search for “jigsaw” or “puzzle.” Adjust the date range and location filters to your preferences, and you might find some local jigsaw puzzle contests. Similarly, you can try other meet-up and event site search bars or even just plain old Google!
This national organization is open to anyone who likes to do puzzles, but they have a lot of helpful information for speed puzzlers specifically and even host contests of their own. They have a calendar of events that includes tons of jigsaw puzzle competitions across the country. They also host the USA Jigsaw Nationals competition.
This website is run by Jonathan Cluff, who is quite the expert on running puzzle contests. Each month, there are multiple online competitions for anyone worldwide to join via Zoom. With options from 300 to 1000 pieces, there’s sure to be a contest that’s a good fit for you. Jonathan has also put together a massive list of in-person puzzling events. They are a great starting point for anyone who wants to get into speed puzzling.
MySpeedPuzzling.com is a site where anyone can create an account, post their own speed puzzling times and compare with others who have posted their times for the same puzzle. These do not have to be puzzles that you completed in an official competition - you can post puzzles you've practiced on your own at home! Although conditions and performance are different when you're in a competition versus puzzling on your own at home, this site is a great way to get a sense of how you might stack up, especially for puzzles that haven't been used in official competitions and don't have times posted anywhere else.
We offer puzzle rental subscriptions so you can continually receive new puzzle challenges without worrying about where to store them. Our puzzles come in an opaque shipping bag, so you can choose not to peek inside until you start your timer to practice speed puzzling. Build your wishlist with piece counts and images you want to practice. And many of our speed puzzlers like the 2-puzzle plan or 4-puzzle pack since they go through puzzles quickly. Check out our plans and get started!