Upside down or right side up — it hardly matters for Becca Taylor: The pieces always seem to fall into place.
In the world of competitive speed puzzling, where an eye for detail and fast handiwork can impact completion time — down to the second — the ability to assemble hundreds of pieces quickly no matter where she stands gives her an edge.
Taylor, a graduate program director at Stanford University, is part of a growing group of jigsaw puzzle enthusiasts who participate in the sport — a fast-moving, hyper-focused variant of the relaxing pastime that has seen a resurgence in popularity.
“It’s a mental race against yourself,” she said.
The format for competitive puzzling is simple: The first person, pair or team to assemble a preselected puzzle wins.
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For noncompetitive jigsaw enthusiasts, a 500-piece project could take anywhere from a few days to a few months.
Some of the fastest speed puzzlers in the United States and abroad can finish that within an hour, a feat built upon constant practice and focus. Attempting to keep up with these racers, especially for puzzle newbies, is not for the faint of heart.
I would know: I tried.
A graphic comparing times for two in-person and one virtual events: For the 500-piece, individuals event at the 2023 World Jigsaw Puzzle Championship, the fastest time was 37 minutes and 59 seconds, and the slowest was 1 hour and 28 minutes; For the 500-piece, individuals event at the 2022 USA Jigsaw Nationals, the fastest time was 54 minutes and 42 seconds, and the slowest was one hour and 58 minutes; and for a SpeedPuzzling.com's 500-piece individual virtual event from October 2023, the fastest time was 53 minutes and 42 seconds, and the slowest was 1 hour and 54 minutes. This reporter recently completed the puzzle from that event after 4 hours and 47 minutes.
Quick hands make fast work
Finishing times for 500-piece puzzles
2023 World Jigsaw
Puzzle Championship
Individuals, Finals
2022 USA
Jigsaw Nationals
Individuals , Finals
“Marzamemi, Sicily”
“San Diego”
Second-fastest time for a
500-piece solve at the world
championships since 2019
October 2023
SpeedPuzzling.com Event
Individuals, Virtual
Second time
ever completing
a puzzle alone
“Cozy Cabana”
Note: I completed “Cozy Cabana” outside the
virtual competition.
Quick hands make fast work
Finishing times for 500-piece puzzles
2023 World Jigsaw
Puzzle Championship
Individuals, Finals
2022 USA
Jigsaw Nationals
Individuals, Finals
“Marzamemi, Sicily”
“San Diego”
Second-fastest time for a
500-piece solve at the
world championships
since 2019
October 2023
SpeedPuzzling.com Event
Individuals, Virtual
Second time
ever completing
a puzzle alone
“Cozy Cabana”
Note: I completed “Cozy Cabana” outside of
the virtual competition.
Quick hands make fast work
Finishing times for 500-piece puzzles
2023 World Jigsaw
Puzzle Championship
Individuals, Finals
2022 USA
Jigsaw Nationals
Individuals, Finals
October 2023
SpeedPuzzling.com Event
Individuals, Virtual
“Marzamemi, Sicily”
“San Diego”
“Cozy Cabana”
Second-fastest time for a
500-piece solve at the world
championships since 2019
Second time
ever completing
a puzzle alone
Note: I completed “Cozy Cabana” outside of the virtual competition.
Quick hands make fast work
Finishing times for 500-piece puzzles
2022 USA
Jigsaw Nationals
Individuals, Finals
October 2023
SpeedPuzzling.com Event
Individuals, Virtual
2023 World Jigsaw
Puzzle Championship
Individuals, Finals
“Marzamemi, Sicily”
“San Diego”
“Cozy Cabana”
Second fastest time for a
500-piece solve at the
world championships
Second time
ever completing
a puzzle alone
Note: I completed “Cozy Cabana” outside of the virtual competition.
Building their edge
Speed puzzlers stay competitive by honing their assembly techniques, building mental stamina, leaning into their individual specialties and, most important, staying calm during high-pressure competitions.
For some of the fastest speed puzzlers in the world, this requires a mind-set not unlike a professional athlete with a training routine to match.
Yvonne Feucht, a camera operator in Burbank, Calif., started speed puzzling in June 2020. Leading up to a competition, she completes two or three puzzles daily — except on designated rest days. She practices quickly flipping the pieces after opening a box and trains herself to use both hands to place pieces, along with traditional exercise.
“I do core exercises just so I don’t have to worry about my back,” Feucht said. “Because if your back is hurting, you’re probably not concentrating on the puzzle as much.”
Feucht’s techniques have paid off: She beat 98 other competitors for the 500-piece individuals title during the 2022 USA Jigsaw Nationals championship in San Diego, posting a winning time of 54 minutes and 41 seconds. She’ll compete to hold her title next month at the 2024 national championship.
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Speed-puzzling organizers try to pick unreleased images to avoid giving any competitors an advantage, said Faith Lindell-Taylor, treasurer and co-founder of the USA Jigsaw Puzzle Association.
In some cases, they announce the brand of puzzles that will be used, a valuable clue that allows competitors to practice on the company’s product line.
What’s printed on the puzzle matters: Textured elements, like fur, and large color blocks, such as swaths of blue sky and water, can create an extra challenge.
Feucht described herself as “the rare person who’s really good at busy puzzles.”
A graphic showing the six types of puzzle images seen in competitions: Animals, also known as furs; gradients; simple and complex illustrations, photographs and round.
Pictures worth a
thousand pieces
Puzzle type and composition can affect a speed puzzler's time. These are some of the printed image types seen in competition.
Animals (furs)
Illustrations (simple)
Illustrations (complex)
Photographs
Pictures worth a thousand pieces
Puzzle type and composition can affect a speed
puzzler's time. These are some of the printed image
types seen in competition.
Animals (furs)
Illustrations (simple)
Illustrations (complex)
Photographs
Pictures worth a thousand pieces
Puzzle type and composition can affect a speed puzzler's time.
These are some of the printed image types seen in competition.
Animals (furs)
Illustrations (simple)
Illustrations (complex)
Photographs
Pictures worth a thousand pieces
Puzzle type and composition can affect a speed puzzler's time. These are some of the printed image types seen in competition.
Animals (furs)
Illustrations (simple)
Illustrations (complex)
Photographs
Each puzzler brings their own approach to the table.
There are “a lot of people who are really, really good with the slightest differences in color,” Taylor said. “They can pick up two yellows and say, ‘This one’s much darker,’ even though, to the naked eye, they might look identical at first glance.”
Taylor’s strength lies in her ability to identify patterns from looking at the shape of a piece, allowing her to assemble a puzzle at any angle at the table. It’s a useful skill for pairs competition that lets Taylor’s partners capitalize on their strengths.
One of those teammates is Andrea Peng, a biotech research contractor in San Francisco, who started speed puzzling in May.
The two — team name Pair O’Shorts — placed third during the Puzzle Contest at the 2024 St. Paul Winter Carnival on Jan. 27, assembling a 500-piece puzzle in 28 minutes and 22 seconds.
Peng said she prioritizes organization, keeping a clean workspace and following her instincts on piece placement. Fast-paced music from artists like Charli XCX and Dua Lipa helps her stay focused and move quickly. A pre-event ritual is listening to Taylor Swift’s “... Ready for It?”
“It’s kind of like running,” she said. “You don’t really want to listen to a soft ballad.”
A graphic walking through Andrea Peng's process of completing a 500-piece puzzle during a virtual, solo competition on Jan. 6.
Anatomy of a solve
On Jan. 6, Andrea Peng clocked the
fastest time assembling Clementoni’s
“Monte Rosa Dreaming” during a
500-piece individuals virtual contest.
This was her process.
From the jump, Peng quickly
flipped and sorted the pieces
to build out the corner sky.
She continued sorting, using the box
as a reference to place pieces where
she thought they belonged.
She then worked
on the edges
With the borrder complete, Peng
focused on the boardwalk.
The path’s gridlike
layout and depth
of field helped
her here.
Next are the flowers. There’s enough
variation in color and texture to sort.
The pieces forming the umbrellas
are unique enough to take shape.
With fewer pieces in the pile, Peng worked
on the water and bicycles, using the red
and white canal poles as a reference.
As with the brick path, Peng sorted these
chairs and tables using their texture and
perspectives as clues.
With enough pieces assembled, Peng
worked fast to fill in the rest, sorting
the buildings, roofs, trees, and
the lamp post.
She finished in
40 minutes and
18 seconds.
Anatomy of a solve
On Jan. 6, Andrea Peng clocked the fastest time assembling Clementoni’s “Monte Rosa Dreaming” during a 500-piece individuals virtual contest.
This was her process.
From the jump, Peng quickly
flipped and sorted the pieces
to build out the corner sky.
She continued sorting, using the box as a
reference to place pieces where she thought
they belonged.
She then worked
on the edges.
With the border complete, Peng
focused on the boardwalk.
The path’s gridlike
layout and depth
of field helped
her here.
Next are the flowers. There’s enough
variation in color and texture to sort.
The pieces forming the umbrellas
are unique enough to take shape.
With fewer pieces in the pile, Peng worked
on the water and bicycles, using the red
and white canal poles as a reference.
As with the brick path, Peng sorted these
chairs and tables using their texture and
perspectives as clues.
With enough pieces assembled, Peng
worked fast to fill in the rest, sorting
the buildings, roofs, trees, and
the lamp post.
She finished in
40 minutes and
18 seconds.
Anatomy of a solve
On Jan. 6, Andrea Peng clocked the fastest time assembling Clementoni’s “Monte Rosa Dreaming” during a 500-piece individuals virtual contest.
This was her process.
She continued sorting,
using the box as a
reference to place
pieces where she
thought they belonged.
From the jump, Peng quickly
flipped and sorted the pieces
to build out the corner sky.
With the border
complete, Peng
focused on
the boardwalk.
She then worked
on the edges
Next are the flowers.
There’s enough
variation in color
and texture to sort.
The path’s gridlike
layout and depth
of field helped
her here.
The pieces forming the umbrellas are unique enough to take shape.
With fewer pieces in the pile, Peng worked on the water and bicycles, using the red and white canal poles as a reference.
As with the brick path,
Peng sorted these chairs
and tables using their
texture and perspectives
as clues.
With enough pieces assembled,
Peng worked fast to fill in the
rest, sorting the buildings,
roofs, trees, and the
lamp post.
She finished in
40 minutes and
18 seconds.
Anatomy of a solve
On Jan. 6, Andrea Peng clocked the fastest time assembling Clementoni’s “Monte Rosa Dreaming” during a 500-piece individuals virtual contest.
This was her process.
She continued sorting,
using the box as a
reference to place
pieces where she
thought they belonged.
From the jump, Peng quickly
flipped and sorted the pieces
to build out the corner sky.
With the border
complete, Peng
focused on the
boardwalk.
She then worked
on the edges.
Next are the flowers.
There’s enough
variation in color
and texture to sort.
The path’s gridlike
layout and depth of
field helped
her here.
The pieces forming the
umbrellas are unique
enough to take shape.
With fewer pieces in the
pile, Peng worked on the water and bicycles, using the red and white canal poles as a reference.
As with the brick path,
Peng sorted these chairs
and tables using their
texture and perspectives
as clues.
With enough pieces assembled,
Peng worked fast to fill in the
rest, sorting the buildings,
roofs, trees, and the
lamp post.
She finished in
40 minutes and
18 seconds.
Peng is refining her techniques — including memorizing the puzzle art up front so, as the race progresses, she can focus on assembly — ahead of the 2024 World Jigsaw Puzzle Championship this September in Valladolid, Spain.
“It’s a slower start, but a much quicker finish,” she said.
Last year, she placed fourth in the 500-piece individuals competition, with a time of 42 minutes and 53 seconds, making her the first American to crack the top five fastest speeds in the solo competition since the world championships started in 2019.
A graphic plotting the times for 180 participants in the individuals competition of the 2023 World Jigsaw Puzzle Championships
Finishing times for the individuals, 500-piece competition during the
2023 World Jigsaw Puzzle Championship
40 minutes
37m 59s
Alejandro
Clemente
León
42m 53s
Andrea Peng
50 minutes
52m 36s
Yvonne Feucht
1h 1m
Becca Taylor
1 hour 10 minutes
1 hour 20 minutes
1 hour 30 minutes
Finishing times for the individuals, 500-piece competition during the 2023 World Jigsaw
Puzzle Championship
40 minutes
37m 59s
Alejandro
Clemente León
42m 53s
Andrea Peng
50 minutes
52m 36s
Yvonne Feucht
1h 1m
Becca Taylor
1 hour 10 minutes
1 hour 20 minutes
1 hour 30 minutes
Finishing times for the individuals, 500-piece competition
during the 2023 World Jigsaw Puzzle Championship
37m 59s
Alejandro
Clemente León
42m 53s
Andrea
Peng
52m 36s
Yvonne Feucht
1h 1m
Becca Taylor
50
minutes
1 hour
10 minutes
1 hour
20 minutes
1 hour
30 minutes
40
minutes
Finishing times for the individual, 500-piece competition during the 2023 World Jigsaw Puzzle Championship
37m 59s
Alejandro
Clemente León
42m 53s
Andrea
Peng
52m 36s
Yvonne
Feucht
1h 1m
Becca
Taylor
50
minutes
1 hour
10 minutes
1 hour
20 minutes
1 hour
30 minutes
40
minutes
She was just five minutes behind Alejandro Clemente León of Barcelona, the reigning world champion, who beat 179 puzzlers from 39 countries.
A puzzling movement
Before the 2022 USA Jigsaw Nationals, one of the last nationwide speed puzzling championships happened inside a renovated dairy barn nearly four decades ago, in Athens, Ohio.
The return to national competition can be traced, in part, to a group of puzzlers, including Lindell-Taylor, Jonathan Cluff and three others, who founded the USA Jigsaw Puzzle Association.
Speed puzzling has also found its way into the mainstream through social media, including viral event videos, competition live streams and content created by puzzle influencers.
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Cluff, a lifelong puzzler from Ransom Canyon, Texas, read about the 2019 world championship but couldn’t find similar U.S. events. So, he started a Facebook group in January 2020 to learn more about speed puzzling and coordinate in-person and virtual events in Texas.
When the coronavirus pandemic hit, contests went entirely online. He now runs SpeedPuzzling.com, an online community for speed puzzlers that has hosted about 150 virtual contests.
“I discover a lot of ninjas in the speed puzzling world,” he said. “My event will be the very first one they do, and they end up placing extremely high.”
Taylor started racing in 2022 after she and a friend won a puzzling competition at a wine bar in Half Moon Bay, Calif., and met a speed puzzler who introduced them to Cluff’s events and the USA Jigsaw Puzzle Association.
From there, Taylor said she has enjoyed being part of a competitive yet supportive community, one that keeps pushing her to improve.
“I’m thrilled for whoever wins,” she said. “I’m also thrilled I knocked a minute off my time.”
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