The most gruelling day of competition left Kirsty Williams sweating and collapsed on the floor, clutching a can of Coke as she tried not to pass out.
She still finished the puzzle.
Williams is one of the many who have gone deep into the world of speed puzzling, adding a boost of adrenalin to an otherwise tranquil hobby by racing others.
It was at the World Jigsaw Puzzle Championship last September, when Williams ran into trouble. The air conditioning in a pavilion in Valladolid, Spain, had conked out as the temperature outside soared above 30 C. She was in the front row, a livestream camera keeping a close eye, and she sensed it would be a tough day.
“Before I had even finished flipping and sorting my edge pieces, I could feel pins and needles in my hands. And I was like this, this is not good.”
Williams had trained relentlessly doing puzzles, enough to have lucked out and done the exact puzzle in front of her. She knew she could get it done in 35 minutes and could likely go even faster on a race day.
But elite speed puzzling requires deep focus, and she wasn’t able to on that hot day.
“I had tried to join a centre piece onto an edge piece, like, three times. And I was like, I know this physically can’t go there. What am I doing?”
She had better luck last month in Winnipeg, during Manitoba’s first regionals competition, sweeping the individual, pairs and teams competitions.
“I was absolutely stoked,” said 38-year-old Williams, who moved last year from the United Kingdom to Brandon, Man.
She’s deep in training again, averaging two puzzles a day, for the world championship next month in Spain.
That includes squeezing in some practice puzzling at lunch on a table in a section that her boss at a custom apparel workshop has specially taped off, as well as powering through repeats of 99-piece puzzles — aiming at five minutes a round.
She’s far from the only person getting lost in puzzles.
Many, like Williams, got more into puzzles during the COVID-19 pandemic and have since looked to add a social twist through competitions.
The Canadian Jigsaw Puzzle Association formed in 2022 and held its first national competition in 2023.
About 200 people showed up the first year. This past May, there were almost 1,000 at the event in Georgetown, Ont., ranging from an 11-year-old boy to those in their 70s, said association treasurer Tina Forsyth.
The world championship had almost 3,800 competitors last year, up from under 1,000 in 2022. More low-key events have also been springing up at libraries, bookstores and community centres.
The rising interest has led to new Canadian puzzle companies, including Elewhite Inc., which started in Calgary in 2021, and Villager Puzzles out of Comox, B.C., founded in 2023.
Those looking to level up their puzzling can also sign up for various boot camps, including ones organized by Rebecca Waddell, who also led organizing for the Manitoba regionals.
Recruits learn the art of the flip, where they get all puzzle pieces out of the bag and facing up and organized as fast as possible. Then they do it again, and again to beat their time.
Waddell said she has cut her own time in half and can flip in four minutes.
Aspiring speed puzzlers also work on memorizing the image, looking at it for 30 seconds, then try to sketch out what they remember.
The sessions start with a practice puzzle, and people are usually laughing and chatting as they solve it. But there’s a notable shift as the day goes on, said Waddell.
“At the end of the class, we do it again. And it’s like, you could hear a pin drop. Everybody’s focused, and they’re just racing as hard as they can.”
As intense as people can take puzzling, Waddell said meeting others has been the best part of competing. That includes the unlikely pairing with her teammate.
“She’s a 22-year-old engineering graduate … and I’m a 51-year-old elementary school teacher, and we’re best pals.”
Team events bring all sorts of extra strategy, deciding who’s going to pick pieces and who’s going to build the puzzle.
Communication becomes key, too, especially when someone gets stuck.
“If you say, OK, I’m going to do the barn. And then you start doing the barn, and it’s like, oh God, this barn, I can’t, I can’t with it. I can’t see it. I can’t do it. You have to have the confidence and communication with your team that if you say ‘I need a change,’ you have to know you’re not letting anyone down.”
Sometimes communication breaks down as the clock ticks.
Williams said there were a few times when she slapped her teammate’s hand as it reached for the wrong piece.
“In the heat of puzzling, you don’t realize that you’ve just hit someone.”
There were no hard feelings though, she said, and it helped that they won the competition.
Both Williams and Waddell emphasize speed isn’t all that important, and that the community supports puzzlers of all abilities.
“You don’t have to be fast at all or even want to be a speed puzzler to come and enjoy our events,” said Waddell.
“You just have to love puzzles.”
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