Part 1: the Results of WJPC 2024

Welcome to the fourth article in Puzzle Talk’s World Jigsaw Puzzle Championship (WJPC) 2024 report series! In this one, we delve into the competition results and share intriguing insights, including highlights from Riikka’s (@riikka_puzzles) analysis of the country rule's impact.

The Evolution of the Competition

WJPC has experienced significant growth over the past three years (2022–2024), with increased participation and representation. This year saw 1106 participants from 65 countries – an impressive 94% increase in participation compared to 2023’s 569 participants and 50 countries.

This growth has led to a more competitive environment, with all contestants completing their puzzles in the individual semifinals, as well as in the pairs and teams finals for the first time in WJPC history. Riikka’s analysis shows that the semifinal qualification rate dropped from 63% in 2023 to 33% in 2024, reflecting the heightened level of competition.

The country rule, which aims to ensure a diverse group of countries proceeds in the competition, played a larger role this year. The basic idea of the rule is that there’s a quota, for instance 30 places, reserved for the fastest contestants from each country represented and they qualify regardless of their time. This might lead to a situation where someone with a slower time proceeds to the next round and someone with a faster time gets eliminated. According to Riikka, in 2024, 32 countries benefited from the rule in the individual competition (up from 23 in 2023), with 16 contestants advancing in both rounds due to the rule – compared to just one in 2023.

Despite the increasing internationalization, WJPC remains dominated by Europe, North America, and Australia. Spain and the USA have been the most successful countries overall, each accounting for 22% of top 10 placements between 2022-2024. In addition, countries like the Czech Republic and Hungary consistently excelled in podium finishes, while contestants from Asia and Africa have yet to place in the top 20. This may be linked to some countries having a more established speed puzzle culture and a longer history with the sport. Or caused by the accessibility of the event, as travel and logistical challenges can limit participation, particularly over time or from certain regions. When looking at the results you can notice there has been significant turnover among top teams and pairs, with only the Spanish team “Non Stop” retaining all members and a top 10 position across the years. 

Individual Competition Highlights

This year, Kristin Thuv from Norway claimed the individual championship, completing her puzzle in an impressive time of 37:58. Kristin’s victory follows two consecutive second-place finishes, marking a well-earned progression. Poland’s Weronika Huptas and Krystian Niedziela placed second and third, both debuting at WJPC after success in local competitions. Each medalist performed well in all rounds and gained good placements consistently. It also seems that almost all contestants who placed in the top 10 or top 20 in the final, had pretty much the same placings consistently during each round they puzzled. 

According to Riikka the country rule had its greatest impact in the semifinals, where 20.6% of finalists advanced due to the rule – a significant increase from prior years. Brazil benefited the most from the rule, while Germany and USA experienced the highest number of "bumped" contestants, which is logical as they had the most contestants. Proportionally, Slovakia, Austria, and the Czech Republic were the countries which suffered the most from the country rule.

Riikka also analyzed the performance of different countries. In terms of performance, out of the countries which had 10 or more contestants, Denmark, Australia, Hungary, and the Czech Republic were among the strongest, with high proportions of contestants advancing to both the semifinals and finals. When looking at the number of contestants, Germany (53 contestants) and USA (42 contestants) had the most representatives in the semifinals. Interestingly USA succeeded in the semifinals and managed to get the most contestants (24) to the final, but only 21 german contestants advanced to the final. Spain, however, had only six contestants in the final and had proportionally the lowest number of contestants performing well. Conversely, countries with fewer than five representatives had the most varied outcomes, with some advancing to the final with all contestants and others being entirely eliminated in the preliminary rounds.

Pairs Competition Highlights

The pairs competition saw Marketa Feislerova and Tereza Koptikova from the Czech Republic take first place, followed by Germany’s Kathi Reiner and Chiara Dellantonio in second, and USA’s Kelly Walter and Andrea Peng in third. Impressively, all top pairs also excelled in the individual and team competitions, consistently maintaining their high performance across all rounds and categories.

This year marked the introduction of semifinals for pairs, making direct comparisons to prior years challenging. However, the competition’s level was notably higher: in the final all pairs finished their puzzles, with the fastest time being 47:41 and 19 pairs completing their puzzles in under an hour. In 2023 the fastest pair's time was 1:32:18 and only nine pairs were able to finish the final puzzle – which was a really challenging one, I have to admit. However, when looking at the 2022 pairs competition results, which featured an easier puzzle, the difference is clear: the fastest pair completed their puzzle in time of 1:02:20, and more than half of the pairs didn’t finish the puzzle.

According to Riikka, the impact of the country rule was more evenly distributed in the pairs competition compared to the individual rounds: no country stood out having particularly many benefitting pairs, and no pair benefited the country rule in both rounds (in prelims and semifinal). The proportionally unluckiest countries were Lithuania and Norway, which each got 25% of their pairs bumped due to the country rule. However, Germany was again the unluckiest country, just like in the individual competition, when looking at the number of pairs who got bumped.   

In terms of performance, Riikka’s analysis shows that, out of the countries which had 10 or more representatives, Germany (54 pairs) and USA (34 pairs) had the highest representation in the semifinals and USA managed to get the most pairs (15) to the final, while Germany lost majority of it’s contestants at this point and only 11 pairs advanced to the final, just like in the individual competition. In addition, Hungary, Australia and Czech Republic were proportionally the strongest countries in the pairs competition, while countries like Japan, the UK, Spain, Switzerland, and Italy faced lower proportional representation in the finals.

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That’s all for now! Next week, I’ll focus on the team competition and share some speculations for next year’s WJPC. For a deeper dive into the country rule analysis, check out Riikka’s Instagram (@riikka_puzzles) – highly recommended for all stats enthusiasts!