Inside the wide world of competitive jigsaw puzzling
Sarah Schuler (left) and Lauren Kautz (right) took home 15th place out of 747 other pairs at the World Jigsaw Puzzle Championship in Spain.
Courtesy Sarah Schuler
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Tickets went live Tuesday for one of the largest jigsaw puzzling competitions in the world. It takes place at the St. Paul Winter Carnival.
Sarah Schuler just returned from Spain after her team placed fifth in the World Jigsaw Competition in Spain. She will attend the jigsaw competition at the St. Paul carnival, which is about the same size as the worldwide competition. She joined Minnesota Now to dive into the world of puzzling.
Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.
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Audio transcript
CATHY WURZER: Tickets went live today for one of the largest jigsaw puzzling competitions in the world, and it's right here in St. Paul at the Winter Carnival. Someone you will definitely see there is Minnesotan Sarah Schuler, and she actually just got back from the World Jigsaw Puzzle Competition in Spain. And she's on the line right now to take us inside the world of puzzling. Sarah, thank you for the time.
SARAH SCHULER: Thank you for having me.
CATHY WURZER: I've got to say, Sarah, I always thought that working jigsaw puzzles was supposed to be relaxing. But I didn't realize that there are people like yourself who compete, and you're incredibly good and fast at it. Walk me through how this happened to you.
SARAH SCHULER: Yeah, it's kind of a weird thing. People don't really know about it. I feel like a lot of Minnesota does puzzle, but not as many people do competitive jigsaw puzzling. So definitely been on a mission to bring that to everyone across the state.
CATHY WURZER: I did not know that it was a thing. So I understand that you were competing with a thousand other puzzlers from around the world. What was that like?
SARAH SCHULER: Yeah, it is electric. I know that sounds kind of wild when it's coming down to jigsaw puzzling, but to be in a room with a thousand other people that have such a passion and love for the same hobby that you do is just such an amazing feeling, and getting to know people all across the world is so cool. We're all linked by this one amazing hobby that anyone can really get into. And it's just such a great welcoming and community, so it's always really great when we all get together at Worlds.
CATHY WURZER: I know there are different categories. Did you make it into the finals?
SARAH SCHULER: I did. So I made it in all three categories. There are team competitions, which is a team of up to four people, pairs, which is just two people working on a puzzle, and then individuals, which is just yourself. So I was lucky enough to make it to finals in all three divisions. And there are a lot of really good puzzlers out there, so it's not easy.
CATHY WURZER: So give me a sense as to how fast you can go when you're really clicking.
SARAH SCHULER: Yeah. So I typically finish a 500-piece puzzle between 45 minutes to an hour. The fastest people in the world can finish it in 26 minutes.
CATHY WURZER: What? What?
SARAH SCHULER: I am nowhere near there yet. I think my best time is about 34 minutes. But yeah, it's absolutely bonkers.
CATHY WURZER: Oh my gosh. I can't even conceive of it. I can't even conceive. All right. Well, then there's got to be some sort of a plan or a strategy, right? So how do you tackle a puzzle as a team?
SARAH SCHULER: Yeah. So as a team, really the most important thing is communication. You can definitely go into it with a plan, but in a jigsaw puzzle competition, typically you don't get to see the image until they do five, four, three, two, one, go. So you can't really plan ahead like, if it's an image with tigers on it, I'm going to take the tigers, I'm going to take the water, I'm going to take these purple flowers. You can't really plan that ahead of time because you get to see the image for the first time when you open that box.
So with the teams and communication, it is so important to just let people know what you're working on. So my team, we have someone that we have do the edge pieces--
CATHY WURZER: Oh, sure.
SARAH SCHULER: --pretty much dedicated to doing that from the beginning. And then the rest of us just call out like, if we're seeing a pink carriage and a white horse, they'll say, oh, I'm going to take all these white pieces and put together the horse. I'm going to take the sky pieces. And you just have to let everyone know what you're working on.
CATHY WURZER: It's important to be a good edger. I will say that.
SARAH SCHULER: Oh, yeah, for sure. For sure. The edge is very important, but sometimes we don't do it first. So as you practice and do more puzzles, you'll learn when it's quicker to do the edge last.
CATHY WURZER: Oh my gosh. All right. So what--
SARAH SCHULER: So many strategies.
CATHY WURZER: I was going to say, right? And then you've got to go fast.
SARAH SCHULER: You do.
CATHY WURZER: Again, I cannot even conceive of doing a puzzle in 35, 40 minutes, or even an hour.
SARAH SCHULER: Oh, yeah. They're incredible. It's so fun to watch.
CATHY WURZER: Do you have an eye, then? It's almost like you develop, I would think, some kind of an eye or a sense of where you're going, larger picture, to go fast.
SARAH SCHULER: Yeah, and I feel like a lot of people have different methods and how their brains work. It's very interesting, and I'm sure that someone should be out there doing a study on it, because I'm sure there's something to be learned from it.
But some people will take a long time and look at the box image and sear that into their brain so they don't have to keep looking at the box. Some people never look at the box, or they just quickly look at it once and go, OK, I get the idea. Some people hold up the piece to the box and find exactly where it goes and puts it down in the puzzle. So lots of different strategies and ways of looking at things.
CATHY WURZER: I have a group of older friends who we call them the Puzzle Babes, and they would, on vacation, take a puzzle and work on it. And it was cutthroat, actually, and I never participated because it was just too much. And I think when you think of a puzzler you think of someone who might be older, but you're in your 20s. So how did you get into competitive puzzling?
SARAH SCHULER: Yeah. So as you were talking about earlier, Winter Carnival is the largest puzzle competition in the country. It used to be a little bit bigger than Worlds. I think this year it might be just up there at the same with a couple thousand people going. But I started going to that to watch my mom and my uncle compete on a team, and eventually one of their team members left their team. And they put me in when I was maybe 12, 13, and that was my first time doing a puzzle contest. And I just fell in love with it, and still to this day now, I'm doing puzzles 15 years later.
CATHY WURZER: How do you practice for a competition?
SARAH SCHULER: Yeah. So typically you know what the brand and the piece count is going to be. And once you know that, you definitely just want to stock up on those kinds of puzzles. So for the Worlds competition it's Ravensburger 500-piece puzzles, which are pretty popular in the United States. So if you're at your local thrift store or a garage sale, I just picked up every single 500-piece Ravensburger puzzle that I saw, if I had not already done it.
And then I just do them. So I set up my space just like there will be at the competition, so I have a folding table, tablecloth, a little mat to put my puzzle on. And then just practice as many as you possibly can in as many styles, try out different strategies. Start with border last, start with border first. Do the sky first, do the sky last. Figure out what works for you, because it's totally different for every person and their brain.
CATHY WURZER: What kind of puzzles give you fits? Where you look and you think, oh my gosh, what is with this?
SARAH SCHULER: Yeah. So the traditional puzzle images that everyone thinks of when they think of a jigsaw puzzle, so photographs of a European landscape or Copenhagen-- which was so funny, because the first puzzle I opened up at Worlds for the individual qualifying rounds was a lovely washed-out photo of Copenhagen. So terribly difficult. I was in shock. I just wanted to die. But I made it through. I did it, I think, in under an hour or so. It may be the worst ones I do, but I can still do them pretty fast. [LAUGHS]
CATHY WURZER: I'd love to watch you. And I guess I will, right? You're going to be part of a documentary?
SARAH SCHULER: Yes, there is a documentary coming out in quite a few years from now, but they just started working on it. It's Puzzle People documentary, so it's following quite a few different puzzlers in different categories. So there's a person that streams on Twitch, and then I host and compete in competitions.
So they're just following a few different puzzlers and seeing how it affects mental health. Usually it's a positive correlation. I mean, sometimes it's frustrating when you're trying to go fast, but definitely is a mindful activity. And just following the lives of a few different people in the puzzle community.
CATHY WURZER: I'm assuming because we have long winters, we must be the land of 10,000 puzzlers.
SARAH SCHULER: Oh, for sure.
CATHY WURZER: So if someone wants to try this, what would you suggest they do?
SARAH SCHULER: Yeah. Just definitely get out there and try it out. I know it can seem daunting to try to do a 500-piece puzzle in 30 minutes. You do not have to be that fast. I host jigsaw puzzle competitions almost every single night around the Twin Cities area, so if you're around, they're at mostly breweries. And you can get a team of four or you in a pair, and you can work with your friends on a puzzle and enjoy a beer or another beverage and just hang out and have fun and try out the new sport.
CATHY WURZER: That sounds like fun. I mean, there's nothing wrong with an adult beverage and a puzzle. That does sound like a good time.
SARAH SCHULER: Amen. It's the best kind of night.
CATHY WURZER: Sarah, best of luck to you. I wish you well, and I'm looking forward to this documentary.
SARAH SCHULER: Yes, me too. Thank you so much.
CATHY WURZER: Sarah Schuler is a competitive jigsaw puzzler. You can find her on social media, by the way, @sarahdoespuzzles. Wow. I just went to school. I was taught about competitive jigsaw puzzling. I had no idea that existed, for goodness sakes. Wow. You learn a lot here on this program.
In case you missed something, we've got that podcast. You can check out our podcast wherever you get your pods. We appreciate you listening to Minnesota Now here on MPR News.
SARAH SCHULER: Thank you for having me.
CATHY WURZER: I've got to say, Sarah, I always thought that working jigsaw puzzles was supposed to be relaxing. But I didn't realize that there are people like yourself who compete, and you're incredibly good and fast at it. Walk me through how this happened to you.
SARAH SCHULER: Yeah, it's kind of a weird thing. People don't really know about it. I feel like a lot of Minnesota does puzzle, but not as many people do competitive jigsaw puzzling. So definitely been on a mission to bring that to everyone across the state.
CATHY WURZER: I did not know that it was a thing. So I understand that you were competing with a thousand other puzzlers from around the world. What was that like?
SARAH SCHULER: Yeah, it is electric. I know that sounds kind of wild when it's coming down to jigsaw puzzling, but to be in a room with a thousand other people that have such a passion and love for the same hobby that you do is just such an amazing feeling, and getting to know people all across the world is so cool. We're all linked by this one amazing hobby that anyone can really get into. And it's just such a great welcoming and community, so it's always really great when we all get together at Worlds.
CATHY WURZER: I know there are different categories. Did you make it into the finals?
SARAH SCHULER: I did. So I made it in all three categories. There are team competitions, which is a team of up to four people, pairs, which is just two people working on a puzzle, and then individuals, which is just yourself. So I was lucky enough to make it to finals in all three divisions. And there are a lot of really good puzzlers out there, so it's not easy.
CATHY WURZER: So give me a sense as to how fast you can go when you're really clicking.
SARAH SCHULER: Yeah. So I typically finish a 500-piece puzzle between 45 minutes to an hour. The fastest people in the world can finish it in 26 minutes.
CATHY WURZER: What? What?
SARAH SCHULER: I am nowhere near there yet. I think my best time is about 34 minutes. But yeah, it's absolutely bonkers.
CATHY WURZER: Oh my gosh. I can't even conceive of it. I can't even conceive. All right. Well, then there's got to be some sort of a plan or a strategy, right? So how do you tackle a puzzle as a team?
SARAH SCHULER: Yeah. So as a team, really the most important thing is communication. You can definitely go into it with a plan, but in a jigsaw puzzle competition, typically you don't get to see the image until they do five, four, three, two, one, go. So you can't really plan ahead like, if it's an image with tigers on it, I'm going to take the tigers, I'm going to take the water, I'm going to take these purple flowers. You can't really plan that ahead of time because you get to see the image for the first time when you open that box.
So with the teams and communication, it is so important to just let people know what you're working on. So my team, we have someone that we have do the edge pieces--
CATHY WURZER: Oh, sure.
SARAH SCHULER: --pretty much dedicated to doing that from the beginning. And then the rest of us just call out like, if we're seeing a pink carriage and a white horse, they'll say, oh, I'm going to take all these white pieces and put together the horse. I'm going to take the sky pieces. And you just have to let everyone know what you're working on.
CATHY WURZER: It's important to be a good edger. I will say that.
SARAH SCHULER: Oh, yeah, for sure. For sure. The edge is very important, but sometimes we don't do it first. So as you practice and do more puzzles, you'll learn when it's quicker to do the edge last.
CATHY WURZER: Oh my gosh. All right. So what--
SARAH SCHULER: So many strategies.
CATHY WURZER: I was going to say, right? And then you've got to go fast.
SARAH SCHULER: You do.
CATHY WURZER: Again, I cannot even conceive of doing a puzzle in 35, 40 minutes, or even an hour.
SARAH SCHULER: Oh, yeah. They're incredible. It's so fun to watch.
CATHY WURZER: Do you have an eye, then? It's almost like you develop, I would think, some kind of an eye or a sense of where you're going, larger picture, to go fast.
SARAH SCHULER: Yeah, and I feel like a lot of people have different methods and how their brains work. It's very interesting, and I'm sure that someone should be out there doing a study on it, because I'm sure there's something to be learned from it.
But some people will take a long time and look at the box image and sear that into their brain so they don't have to keep looking at the box. Some people never look at the box, or they just quickly look at it once and go, OK, I get the idea. Some people hold up the piece to the box and find exactly where it goes and puts it down in the puzzle. So lots of different strategies and ways of looking at things.
CATHY WURZER: I have a group of older friends who we call them the Puzzle Babes, and they would, on vacation, take a puzzle and work on it. And it was cutthroat, actually, and I never participated because it was just too much. And I think when you think of a puzzler you think of someone who might be older, but you're in your 20s. So how did you get into competitive puzzling?
SARAH SCHULER: Yeah. So as you were talking about earlier, Winter Carnival is the largest puzzle competition in the country. It used to be a little bit bigger than Worlds. I think this year it might be just up there at the same with a couple thousand people going. But I started going to that to watch my mom and my uncle compete on a team, and eventually one of their team members left their team. And they put me in when I was maybe 12, 13, and that was my first time doing a puzzle contest. And I just fell in love with it, and still to this day now, I'm doing puzzles 15 years later.
CATHY WURZER: How do you practice for a competition?
SARAH SCHULER: Yeah. So typically you know what the brand and the piece count is going to be. And once you know that, you definitely just want to stock up on those kinds of puzzles. So for the Worlds competition it's Ravensburger 500-piece puzzles, which are pretty popular in the United States. So if you're at your local thrift store or a garage sale, I just picked up every single 500-piece Ravensburger puzzle that I saw, if I had not already done it.
And then I just do them. So I set up my space just like there will be at the competition, so I have a folding table, tablecloth, a little mat to put my puzzle on. And then just practice as many as you possibly can in as many styles, try out different strategies. Start with border last, start with border first. Do the sky first, do the sky last. Figure out what works for you, because it's totally different for every person and their brain.
CATHY WURZER: What kind of puzzles give you fits? Where you look and you think, oh my gosh, what is with this?
SARAH SCHULER: Yeah. So the traditional puzzle images that everyone thinks of when they think of a jigsaw puzzle, so photographs of a European landscape or Copenhagen-- which was so funny, because the first puzzle I opened up at Worlds for the individual qualifying rounds was a lovely washed-out photo of Copenhagen. So terribly difficult. I was in shock. I just wanted to die. But I made it through. I did it, I think, in under an hour or so. It may be the worst ones I do, but I can still do them pretty fast. [LAUGHS]
CATHY WURZER: I'd love to watch you. And I guess I will, right? You're going to be part of a documentary?
SARAH SCHULER: Yes, there is a documentary coming out in quite a few years from now, but they just started working on it. It's Puzzle People documentary, so it's following quite a few different puzzlers in different categories. So there's a person that streams on Twitch, and then I host and compete in competitions.
So they're just following a few different puzzlers and seeing how it affects mental health. Usually it's a positive correlation. I mean, sometimes it's frustrating when you're trying to go fast, but definitely is a mindful activity. And just following the lives of a few different people in the puzzle community.
CATHY WURZER: I'm assuming because we have long winters, we must be the land of 10,000 puzzlers.
SARAH SCHULER: Oh, for sure.
CATHY WURZER: So if someone wants to try this, what would you suggest they do?
SARAH SCHULER: Yeah. Just definitely get out there and try it out. I know it can seem daunting to try to do a 500-piece puzzle in 30 minutes. You do not have to be that fast. I host jigsaw puzzle competitions almost every single night around the Twin Cities area, so if you're around, they're at mostly breweries. And you can get a team of four or you in a pair, and you can work with your friends on a puzzle and enjoy a beer or another beverage and just hang out and have fun and try out the new sport.
CATHY WURZER: That sounds like fun. I mean, there's nothing wrong with an adult beverage and a puzzle. That does sound like a good time.
SARAH SCHULER: Amen. It's the best kind of night.
CATHY WURZER: Sarah, best of luck to you. I wish you well, and I'm looking forward to this documentary.
SARAH SCHULER: Yes, me too. Thank you so much.
CATHY WURZER: Sarah Schuler is a competitive jigsaw puzzler. You can find her on social media, by the way, @sarahdoespuzzles. Wow. I just went to school. I was taught about competitive jigsaw puzzling. I had no idea that existed, for goodness sakes. Wow. You learn a lot here on this program.
In case you missed something, we've got that podcast. You can check out our podcast wherever you get your pods. We appreciate you listening to Minnesota Now here on MPR News.
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