Insider: How Was the WJPC 2024?
The 4th annual World Jigsaw Puzzle Championship (WJPC) was held in Valladolid 17.-22.9.2024. Puzzle Talk reports from the scene. This is the first article of the WJPC 2024 series.
Image: Janne Rainvuori
Puzzle enthusiasts from all around the world gathered in mid-September to Spain, where the World Jigsaw Puzzle Championship was organized in the city of Valladolid. This year the event had 1153 individuals, 741 pairs and 304 teams from 68 countries competing, and the five-day races were streamed live on YouTube.
If you haven’t heard about speed puzzling or puzzle competitions, the idea is to complete a puzzle as fast as possible: the winner is the one who assembles the competition puzzle – usually 500 or 1000 pieces – the fastest. Typically there are three competition series: individual series, pair competition and four-person team competition.
WJPC is organized by the international umbrella organization World Jigsaw Puzzle Federation. This year the competition was the first live puzzle event for many participants and offered a valuable chance to meet other puzzle enthusiasts from all around the world. According to participants, meeting fellow puzzlers in person was the definite highlight of the event and participants felt that the atmosphere was warm and supportive. Kirsty, who represented UK, says people were welcoming and inclusive and according to Catherine, who represented Luxemburg, it was easy to chat with anyone. German contestant Matthias also highlights the support puzzlers gave to each other, no matter what the result might have been: “Everyone cheering on the last person to finish was amazing.”
The level of the competition was evaluated high this year and the puzzles used in the competition were considered challenging enough. As Kirsty says: “There was a really great variety of puzzles for each of the heats.” This year's winner, Kristin Thuv, has a solid fan base. Kristin has placed second two previous years and seeing her win touched many: “The moment when Kristin won her first title and at the ceremony were remarkable”, says Matthias.
In addition to the competition, there was a variety of additional activities from walking tours to a welcome dinner. The organizers also offered puzzling tables and a big screen showing the live stream outside the venue. The participants appreciated the investment in the social aspect: “The puzzle quiz trivia game was a wonderful way to get to know new people”, says Vesna, who represented Finland – and Poland in the team competition. UK puzzler SJ would also like to have more social events, like the quiz or puzzle chess in the future. “And maybe special awards for people who bring something special to the (speed)puzzling community”, she continues.
The main issues participants experienced were related to the venue, which was very hot and crowded during the competition. “There were so many people and it was loud. I definitely felt somewhat overstimulated at times”, Catherine says. Laurie, who represented UK, also points out there wasn’t enough space for queues and the venue lacked sitting options inside: “no one wants to stand for three hours watching teams”, she says. Lack of space also affected the accessibility of the venue, for example it was difficult to navigate the crowd in a wheelchair.
The World Jigsaw Puzzle Federation website, in which the results were published, got also crowded. The server couldn’t handle such traffic and the participants had to sometimes wait for hours to get their results and information on qualifications. In addition, the country rule caused debate during the event and had some negative side-effects. Basically the idea of the country rule is that there’s a quota (e.g. 50% of the semfinal places) for the fastest puzzlers from different countries and the rest contestants qualify based on their time. This lead to a situation in which some people with faster times got eliminated due to the rule and on the other hand people who qualified based on the country-rule were attacked in social media. Due to this, participants are hoping the rule would be adjusted for next year.
The challenges were mainly linked to the rapid growth of the event. Despite the issues, the overall experience was good and participants are mostly considering going again. As Vesna says: “Valladolid is such a charming city, I hope we get to go back there next year!”
Special thanks to the WJPC 2024 participants who shared their experiences and helped in creating this article:
Kirsty (IG @kirsty__marie)
Matthias (IG @puzzled_engineer)
Catherine (IG @catherine.puzzles_)
SJ (IG @2puzzlepeople)
Laurie (IG @keeppuzzling)
Vesna (IG @puzzlinghappiness)