Jigsaw Puzzle Strategy to Solve Puzzles Fast, According to Pros
Updated: Jun. 02, 2024
Whether your puzzle of choice is 300 or 3,000 pieces, take advice from these jigsaw puzzle strategy experts who know a thing or two about putting the pieces together quickly
Jigsaw puzzle strategy tips and advice
For some people, solving a jigsaw puzzle is a relaxing activity, and their preferred way of winding down at the end of the day. For others, it’s a race to the finish. Sure, it’s fun to spend hours catching up with a friend while slowly chipping away at a puzzle, but you can also treat it as a brain game, using expert jigsaw puzzle strategy to solve it in record time.
And there’s no better time to challenge yourself than the present. To help you get started, we asked three jigsaw strategy experts—Alfonso Alvarez-Ossorio, president of the World Jigsaw Puzzle Federation; Jodi Jill, a competitive puzzle player and professional puzzle maker; and Tammy McLeod, a competitive puzzle solver and world-record holder—for advice on how to speed up the puzzle-solving process. Ahead, you’ll find their best tips for completing jigsaw puzzles of all sizes, swiftly.
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About the experts
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Clear your head before you begin
Starting a puzzle of any kind? Get outside for a short walk before you dive in. One of Jill’s best jigsaw puzzle strategies is going for a brisk walk or listening to some music before a competition. “With all the noise and energy in the room, it’s a good idea to work off the nerves, focus and have a clear mind for the puzzle to solve,” she says. “Then when I come back, my mind is clear, I’ve settled down and am focused on completion.”
Even if you aren’t competing against anyone but yourself, chances are you’ll still be surrounded by distractions like your phone, your family and those household tasks you haven’t finished. So going into the activity with a more focused mindset will help with concentration.
Pay attention to the number of pieces
This should go without saying, but when comparing your puzzle-solving times with a friend’s—or even your own from previous puzzles—don’t forget to take the number of pieces into account. “The difficulty of a jigsaw puzzle, and the time it will take to assemble it, is directly proportional to the number of pieces,” says Alvarez-Ossorio.
Consider the morphology of the pieces
Beyond the number of pieces, there are two factors that account for the difficulty of a jigsaw puzzle, says Alvarez-Ossorio. First, he says, is the “morphology of the pieces, which depends on the manufacturer and the dye used.” The second is the contrast of the puzzle image. “The greater the contrast, the more diversity of colors and the more defined the strokes [are], the easier and faster the assembly,” he explains. So the more you can distinguish some pieces from others, the easier the puzzle.
Choose the right surface
Where you do jigsaw puzzles is almost as important as how you do them. “In official competitions, vinyl-plastic is used so that the pieces move quickly across the surface,” says Alvarez-Ossorio. The mats are usually white “to reflect the light of space—lighting is a very important factor.”
When doing a puzzle at home, you’ll want a dedicated space, like a folding card table, so you can spread your pieces out without them getting lost. If you don’t have room, puzzle mats are helpful because you can easily roll up a puzzle-in-progress to store it when you need to reclaim your dining-room or coffee table.
Don’t bother sorting small puzzles
The most efficient jigsaw puzzle strategy is to take into account the characteristics of the puzzle. For example, in McLeod’s personal puzzle-solving experience, “a 500-piece jigsaw is small enough to be spread out completely on a table so that all the pieces can be viewed at the same time,” she says. In this case, the most efficient way to solve it is to simply pick out pieces to be assembled, without sorting. “Usually, each piece contains enough details to uniquely identify it,” she notes.
The best way to do a 1,000-piece puzzle is different. For puzzles of that size, sorting is likely necessary. Each piece contains a much smaller portion of the full image, so McLeod finds it faster to sort them into general groups before getting started.
Start with the edges
The trick to jigsaw puzzles is trying multiple methods and finding the one that gives you the greatest advantage. For many people, that jigsaw puzzle strategy is putting the edges together first. The reason for this is simple: Because these pieces have one straight edge, they are easier to identify and put together. You can get a portion of the puzzle completed without much difficulty.
“There isn’t a single strategy that will work for 100% of puzzles, but in the majority of cases, it is easiest to start with the edge,” McLeod says. “This does not apply for non-rectangular puzzles and some puzzles where the edge pieces are cut interchangeably, but generally, to solve a puzzle fast, sorting is key.”
Skip hunting for the corners
Whether you’re working on one of the most challenging jigsaw puzzles you can buy or an old favorite, McLeod advises against seeking out the corner pieces. “You’d have to spend a lot of time sifting through all the pieces just to find them,” she says. “Instead, start by pulling out the edges. Then, when you have most of them, start assembling them. The few edge pieces that you miss will naturally emerge after other pieces get placed.”
Learn how to sort correctly
Seeking out the corner pieces may not be worth your time, but according to Alvarez-Ossorio, categorizing them is. “The larger the puzzle, the more time you should devote to sorting the pieces,” he says.
One strategy he suggests: Divide the jigsaw puzzle by zones, which are normally identified by colors, but sometimes can also be by themes within the puzzle. For example, if you were working on a puzzle about nature, separate the trees and the grass. While they both may be the same color, “the textures are completely different,” Alvarez-Ossorio says. If you see any letters on the pieces that look like they’ll go on to form words, McLeod recommends identifying and separating those, as words will likely make it much easier to place pieces. Think of it as a bonus find-the-hidden-objects game.
Do the puzzle in front of a mirror
Practicing in front of her closet mirror has increased the speed of Jill’s jigsaw puzzle play. “One thing I’ve learned is [that in order] to quickly complete jigsaws, you need peripheral vision,” she explains. “As you physically connect one piece in the puzzle, your eyes need to be looking for the next piece. Then you grab that piece, connect it while looking for the next piece and so on. [Doing the puzzle in front of a mirror] has forced me to see the whole puzzle, beyond the pieces in front of me, and led me to faster completion.”
Look for the grain of the cardboard or wood
Roadblocks are common. If you’ve ever worked on a puzzle and just can’t seem to place the next piece, no matter how much you try, you’re not alone. In situations like these, instead of focusing exclusively on the design of the pieces, Jill actually suggests paying attention to the grain of their cardboard or wood. “This is especially helpful for quickly putting together all-one-color and double-sided jigsaw puzzles,” she says.
To find the grain on a cardboard or wooden jigsaw puzzle piece, tilt your head and look at the pieces at an angle. The “itty-bitty straight lines or bumps” you see are the grain, Jill says.
Pay attention to the paper formation
Let’s say you have 40 pieces of blue sky in the corner of a jigsaw puzzle and need a quick way to determine how the pieces lay. At this point, Jill recommends looking at the paper formation. “The fibers of any paper or wood product all go one way, [and] aligning the pieces helps you focus on connecting pieces,” she explains. If you’re having trouble seeing the fibers, use the same strategy as you would to look for the grain: Tilt your head and look at it on an angle.
Take breaks
Depending on its shape, design and coloring, a 1,000-piece puzzle should take somewhere between four and 12 hours to complete—so plan on taking breaks along the way. “I have worked on puzzles with over 4,000 pieces that take 60-plus hours to complete, so I definitely cannot finish them in a single sitting,” McLeod says. And yes, fresh eyes can help, especially if you’re tired. (You may also want to invest in a lighted magnifying glass.)
Reap the benefits
There are some serious benefits of solving puzzles. “Working on puzzles helps you develop your hand-eye coordination, your visual acuity, color and shape recognition and your patience,” McLeod says. It’s also a very meditative activity. “Your mind can wander while your hands and eyes are involved with assembling,” she explains. “Plus, you get a hit of dopamine every time you fit a piece, so it becomes a long session of satisfying feelings.”
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Reader’s Digest is known for our humor and brain games, including quizzes, puzzles, riddles, word games, trivia, math, pattern and logic puzzles, guessing games, crosswords, rebus, hidden objects and spot-the-difference challenges. We’ve earned prestigious ASME awards for our entertainment content and have produced dozens of brainteaser books, including Word Searches, Word Power, Use Your Words, Fun Puzzles and Brain Ticklers, Mind Stretchers, Ultimate Christmas Puzzles and more. Our 10 published volumes of Mind Stretchers were edited by Allen D. Bragdon, founder of the Brainwaves Center and editor of Games magazine. Read more about our team, our contributors and our editorial policies.
Sources:
- Alfonso Alvarez-Ossorio, president of the World Jigsaw Puzzle Federation; interview, January 2020
- Jodi Jill, competitive puzzle player, professional puzzle maker and founder of National Puzzle Day; interview May 2024
- Tammy McLeod, competitive puzzle solver; interview, January 2020
Originally Published: January 13, 2020
