Deep Dive to World Jigsaw Puzzle Championships 2024 with Val Coit
The World Jigsaw Puzzle Championships 2024 is the hottest topic in the puzzle world right now, since the competition is being held next week in Valladolid, Spain. We interviewed Valerie Coit, the co-Vice President of World Jigsaw Puzzle Federation. She gave us a sneak peek behind the scenes and shared her thoughts on what to expect from the event.
This year Val’s going to be the main host of the English live stream, working alongside organizer Charlie Kendall and co-Vice President D’Arne Healy as frequent co-hosts. Val’s also invited people from different countries to join as guest co-hosts, so we’re going to see Karen Kavett (Karen puzzles) and Michelle Kasper from Speed Puzzle Europe visiting the live stream along with many others. “With the livestream, I’m excited to be back again to have a front row seat to all the puzzling action”, Val says. To prepare, she’s been doing a lot of research to get caught up on competitors from around the world, and she also believes her co-hosts and guests will come in with a lot of theories and ideas about people to keep an eye on: “I’m sure I’ll learn even more from talking to the puzzlers and other super fans at the event.”
Despite the extensive background work, Val doesn’t want to plan the live stream in too much detail: “I do want to leave space in there, so that if we start to see stories unfolding or we notice people really asking about a certain team or individual in the comments, we can then do our best to bring them on and have them be part of the live stream”, Val says. Having a long history and career working in communications and hosting puzzle competitions has helped with the live stream preparations and Val’s heading to Spain with a positive mindset: “It’s going to be a demanding schedule, but I feel ready. More than anything, I’m excited to see everyone in person and talk to all these awesome puzzlers. It’s going to be so fun”, she says.
Val believes the competition is going to be really tight this year, as we're going to see so many talented puzzlers in the competition. She predicts we’ll see some astonishing times and time records broken in all categories, individuals, pairs and teams. Val is looking forward to seeing if the current world champion Alejandro Clemente Leon will be able to retain his title. In addition to Alejandro, Val mentions Wiktor Kacprzak (Poland), Kathi Reiner (Germany), Tobias Priemer (Sweden), Kristin Thuv (Norway) and Tereza Koptíková (Czech Republic) as some top contestants to keep an eye on during the event. She also believes the current US champion Alice Rowe, and Mari Black (US) with her team Wicked Quick are ones to follow during the event. But, what really gets her excited is the element of surprise: “There are lots of new, fast puzzlers arriving on the scene and I’m sure there are going to be compelling stories that develop as the week progresses. - - I'm hopeful that we'll see some people that we've never heard of in those early qualifying divisions that just blow us away.”
According to Val, organizing such a huge puzzle event requires a lot of work: “I think about right now, they got a truck arriving to drop off just pallet loads of puzzles. In the teams event they're given four 1000 piece puzzles to choose from, so the organizers have to prepare all of those puzzles: they have to cut the stickers and bag all of them in addition to puzzles for other rounds. And then you need to have space to just store all of those puzzles and keep them top secret.” Another thing Val brings up is that events like this require a lot of communication. “The representatives from many of the countries affiliated with the World Jigsaw Puzzle Federation regularly share their ideas and suggestions for continuing to improve the event.”
According to Val, having a familiar venue and good relationships with the local community helps to organize the event successfully: ”World Jigsaw Puzzle Federation president Alfonso Alvarez-Ossorio has got this really entrenched team that's used to doing this. They know how it works, and they have a really good system for pulling it all off and making it all run on time.” And according to Val, it’s Alfonso who does most of the organizing work: “He has collaborators in Spain that help him to pull it off, but he has dedicated himself full-time to this effort.”
This year, Alfonso has also expanded the scope by helping to get championships set up in many new countries, adding divisions to include more competitors and offering many new events in Valladolid to enrich the experience of those attending WJPC: “Not only is Alfonso organizing the championships this year, but he’s also added so many things to the schedule for people. We're going to have badges for the first time and people can present them at the tourist office to get discounts at different sites. Then there's walking tours that are being offered, a dinner, a winery tour… Alfonso has really gone above and beyond this year to add all these things that people can do outside of the puzzling. So, I do think it's going to be the biggest and best year ever”, Val says.
Val’s list of speed puzzle resources to follow:
World jigsaw puzzle federation (Competition results)
Instagram & Youtube puzzlers
Puzzle Talk also recommends to check out:
World Jigsaw Puzzle Championships schedule time converter made by @riikkapuzzles (IG)
This was super interesting! Thanks for sharing 🙌