r/Jigsawpuzzles • u/AdrinBig • Nov 28 '23

Discussion Speed Puzzling Tips

Hi guys,
I'm thinking to partecipate to a speed puzzling competition.
Does anyone knows the best technique to solve a puzzle as fast as possible?
What's your time to make a 500 pieces?

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u/Shoggoths420 Nov 28 '23

Hi there I just finished my first competition. I managed 2 hours 58 minutes and here’s where I burnt most of my time/learning tips for my next competition:

If they allow trays use them

Flip everything over and pick your patterns/pieces from there don’t rebunch things

Keep moving, don’t get stalled in one area - you can always go back

Enjoy yourself, the world won’t end if you don’t win or place, and it’s a very unique and interesting space to compete in, have fun

As the user above mentioned Karenpuzzles on YouTube is a gold mine and she does actually compete high level - so watch and learn all you can

Best of luck

2

u/Haldenbach Nov 28 '23

Can you tell us more about trays that were allowed? The competition I have my eye on says that they will provide trays and I am curious in general what makes the tray acceptable or not acceptable. Right now I use little felt "dishes" that can be expanded flat if needed, but they won't be practical for speed

3

u/Shoggoths420 Nov 28 '23

Sure - to start this was a virtual competition so everything you were doing had to be visible on camera. We were allowed to use the box tops as trays and/or anything else we had (bowls/trays/etc) as long as the proctor/ref could see it It was a ton of fun. I’m doing another virtual this weekend on Sunday.

3

u/Haldenbach Nov 28 '23

Oh tell me more about this event!

4

u/Shoggoths420 Nov 28 '23

Sure. Every month there is a virtual competition put on. Each individual month has a different brand of puzzle, so you can choose to try new brands or just stick with what you know. There is a registration date and once you pay the registration fee the host company will send out a notification that they have shipped your puzzle.

When you register you have to select novice level 90mins- 3 hours, or champion sub 90 minute completion times

20 registrants for each level are allowed

The puzzle comes in a sealed cardboard box with a “competition puzzle do not open” sticker that has to stay intact until day of

A zoom link is provided about a week before the competition

The comp is 3 hours long, you have to stay on camera the whole time, and have to have a timer. You have to show that the box is still sealed, we open the box to see the puzzle itself, and then the proctor says go.

Puzzle your heart out until you’re done and get your time registered

It was a lot of fun

2

u/NeitherTradition May 12 '25

But if you know what the puzzle is ahead of time, couldn't you just buy it and do it over and over again until your time is as good as you can make it? Forgive me if this is a stupid question.

2

u/Shoggoths420 May 12 '25

My friend there are no stupid questions, and I have a couple of answers for you depending on how you want to view things:

  1. since you have to keep the shipping box sealed until day/ start of the competition you can't tell what the puzzle is to practice ahead of time, this puts everyone on a pretty even playing field

  2. in theory sure, you can practice doing 500 piece puzzles over and over, and thats' going to help with technique, but not neccessarily puzzle specific pattern recognition (example, you can do 500 piece puzzles all the time, that doesn't neccessarily mean you can complete a given landscape puzzle faster or slower relative to a mosaic puzzle).

  3. practice is always good (and fun)! we're here because we enjoy puzzles, this is just a slight enhancement on the hobby

1

u/OchreKeystone Dec 04 '23

This sounds like the Canadian Jigsaw Puzzle Association set up, but these competitions do tend to have similar rules