An excited crowd milled around the foyer of the Petersburg Public Library on Jan. 10, waiting for the start of the library’s inaugural jigsaw puzzle competition. Teams of two would race to be the first to finish a puzzle. Space was limited, so groups showed up early to claim their spot.
Some teams talked strategy at the last minute, like Sue Flint and her puzzling partner Kris Norosz.
“We’ve never worked on a puzzle together before,” said Flint. “But we did have a two-minute conversation, and [we’ll] both do the outside borders first and then sort colors.”
On another team, Abbey Hardie and Shirley Yip had a similar plan: approach the borders first. Hardie said she did her research ahead of time.
“I even YouTube-d people who are, like, jigsaw contest puzzlers,” Hardie said. “I did not realize how big of a thing it is, and I’m really grateful that Petersburg wanted to throw one for people like me who go crazy for puzzles.”
Hardie’s team is just one piece of a big group of puzzle-lovers in Petersburg and beyond. Across the U.S., there are state and national jigsaw puzzle competitions.
In Petersburg, there’s already a group of puzzlers who regularly meet. Patti Steele is a member of the Petersburg Puzzlers, who meet once a month. Sometimes, they host their own team competitions.
“We have the same amount of people in each group,” Steele said. “And sometimes we have a prize.”
While the group wasn’t affiliated with this event, Steele showed up to compete.
There were more teams than puzzles by the start of the competition, so only the seven teams who arrived the earliest were allowed into the main event.
The puzzlers found their way to tables spaced out across the library’s conference room, each with the same puzzle on top. The puzzles were wrapped in wrapping paper, so nobody could peek ahead of time.
Kari Petersen, the library’s program coordinator, explained the rules. Teams had two hours to finish a 500-piece puzzle. The first team done, or the team with the least amount of remaining pieces after two hours, would win. No spectators or distractions were allowed.
When Petersen said they could start, the room became a flurry of ripping paper and excited conversations. The teams uncovered a design that featured more than 50 brightly-colored feathers on a white background. The groups scrambled to sort their pieces.
Petersen said she learned about speed puzzling from a patron.
“It sounded like a lot of fun, so I put this together based on that idea,” she said.
Plus, she said puzzling is a great way to cope with the winter blues. It’s satisfying every time you find the right piece.
She said the reaction to the competition has been positive, and the library would like to host another in the future.
Just under an hour into the competition, teams had found their groove and were quietly sorting pieces. Petersen walked up to a table and made an announcement.
“Okay, we have a winner.”
Some puzzlers gasped, looking around to see who finished.
Matt Pawuk and his niece, Lydia Martin, completed their puzzle in 58 minutes. The second-place team, Hardie and Yip, would need 20 more minutes to finish. Some teams wouldn’t finish at all.
Pawuk said his strategy was his teammate.
“I hitched my wagon to a pretty good puzzler here, so I knew we had a pretty good chance,” Pawuk said.
Martin said that while she’s only been puzzling for two years, she’s done a lot of puzzles in that time. She said the difficulty of a puzzle isn’t always about the number of pieces.
“I think it depends on the print,” Martin said. “They picked such a good one with a bunch of different feathers with different patterns on it.”
“That puzzle was definitely conducive to speed solving,” Pawuk agreed.
As first-place winners, Pawuk and Martin each received a giftcard to Kinder Komfort, the local toy store.
The remaining teams also got their own prize, regardless of how they finished. Each group got to take home the puzzle that they worked on.
