Jessica Cutshall
Three, two, one, go! Two hundred plastic zip-lock bags open and thousands of jigsaw puzzle pieces fall onto rectangular tables. Fingers frantically flip, gather and sort while teammates assemble the border and separate colors. Eyes dart between the pieces and the box top photo showing a never-before released puzzle. Welcome to the USA Jigsaw National Competition.
Dublin resident, Jessica Cutshall, says that her grandparents always had a puzzle out just for fun. While Cutshall was obtaining her master’s and PhD, she would take a break from her studies by puzzling.
Last year, her aunt Linda Hirschfeld tried a solo jigsaw competition in California and decided the family needed to get in on the fun. Cutshall and Hirschfeld competed in the Origins Game Fair competition last June in Columbus and they were hooked. Cutshall, and her three aunts, Hirschfeld, Patty Baker and Cathy Luers, formed a team called The Cutshall Connection, and have traveled and competed in multiple events.
Jigsaw puzzles have seen a resurgence in popularity since the COVID-19 pandemic and use of social media for promotion, with an estimated $3 billion in revenue generated worldwide in 2024. But the pastime is certainly not new, having derived from dissected maps in the 17th century and leading to the term dissectology, or the study of jigsaw puzzles. Now there are events at breweries and recreation centers locally as well as international week-long competitions.
Earlier this year in April, Cutshall and her aunts went to Nationals in Washington D.C. There are three types of competition: the solo, pairs and teams.
In the individual event, 200 competitors have one and a half hours to complete a 500-piece puzzle. There are three preliminary rounds before the finals, which was won this year by Kelly Walter of Phoenix, Arizona with a time of 40:34.
Jessica Cutshall
In the pairs division, 200 teams raced to assemble a 500-piece puzzle in two preliminary rounds.
The team’s event is the most rambunctious and there is a 3-hour time limit to complete two 1,000-piece puzzles. There were two preliminary rounds and the finals were won by the team of ‘Jack be Quick’ in 1:37:53. The event was live-streamed on YouTube and it was fun to follow along and read the comment section.
Everyone has fun naming their own team, designing matching shirts and getting into the spirit of the game.
“I am The Enforcer, Linda is The Competitor, Patty is The Distractor and Cathy’s shirt says, ‘Damn it, Cathy,’ which is what she regularly says to herself,” says Cutshall.
Two of her friends, Gretchen Geyer and Maddie Grap, joined the most recent Columbus competition, known as The Origins, and earned the nicknames ‘Organizilla’ and ‘Another ADHD Hobby.’
Tips and Tricks
So how do you prepare for a competition?
It is important to start and finish a timed puzzle in one sitting and get used to not taking a break. Each event is sponsored by a puzzle company, so it helps to practice on that particular brand such as Cobble Hill or Ravensburger.
“I also work on different types of puzzles, like landscapes, people or color patterns,” says Cutshall.
Baker practices her small motor skills by flipping pieces over and timing herself.
Other competition tips include not spending too much time in one area and rotating seats to get a different perspective. Turn the photo on the box top so that it’s oriented the same direction as the puzzle.
Cutshall likes to start with the border but says if the puzzle has distinct pictures in the middle and not on the edges, then it’s better to not do the border first.
Cutshall considers herself a puzzle enthusiast and even learned woodworking to create a cocktail table that can fold and unfold while keeping a puzzle intact.
She says speed puzzling has brought her even closer to her aunts, as they now plan fun vacations together. Next up are the International Global Championships in Valladolid, Spain, sponsored by the World Jigsaw Puzzle Federation from Sept.15-21.
Colleen D'Angelo is a Dublin Life columnist and freelance writer who has lived in Dublin for 27 years. You can find her on the pickleball court, in the yoga studio or on an airplane to international destinations. Contact her at colleendangelo1@gmail.com.
