The “puzzlers” know better than anyone that it takes “patience, order or common sense” for everything to fit together. But when a competition gets involved, it also takes great acuity and draws are noticeable. Also, if you have “trained” with this specific puzzle; The fact is that everything must go well and quickly. And if not, tell that to the members of the American team of the first round of the IV World Puzzle Championship in Valladolid, who this Wednesday broke “a record” shortly after the start of the competition. Nothing more and nothing less than two thousand pieces assembled in 49 minutes and 13 seconds, a mark that beats that of last year’s best group, which lasted one hour, 23 minutes and four seconds.
“It’s crazy, the weather surprised me,” he explains just before starting the individual phase. President of the World Federation of Puzzles and Jigsaw Puzzles, Alfonso Álvarez Ossorio. And that in these first steps “the atmosphere is not competitive but jovial” and the main objective of the majority is to “enjoy the puzzle”.
“We made this test to whet your appetite, because last year we presented a special Guinness World Records puzzle (it should be noted that the championship had been recognized as the most attended of this type in the world) and we do not have space to make a first test for everyone, so we asked the national associations to make selections of ten people to start this challenge officially,” he said.
Twenty-five of them took on the challenge of competing with this composition of “medium difficulty” and the American was the fastest. “The intrinsic difficulty of the puzzle is part of the challenge, so it is difficult to compare, but it is surely the fastest ever done in these conditions and of this size,” says Álvarez Ossorio.
In any case, the great meeting of puzzle lovers at the Millennium Dome in Valladolid has only just begun. Between now and next Sunday, September 22, they will be there 2,400 participants from 70 different countriesThe organizing staff therefore moves from here to there as in the pits of a Formula 1 race. And for the individual, duo or team phases, all the puzzles will be new, to ensure that the challenge is the same for everyone and that it does not “touch” “a subject that you have studied”.
The “queen” category is the solo category, which begins this Wednesday with a qualification of six groups of 200 people. Favorites? Perhaps the champion and finalist of the last edition, the Spaniard Alejandro Clemente and the Norwegian Kristin Thuv. “They have experience and talent,” says the president of the federation, “but the growth of this event is very important and that means that There are many people with a level that we do not know, someone spectacular can appear.
The Spanish participants are perhaps “more accustomed to tournaments,” he explains, since in other countries they are now being organized professionally. “Sometimes people consider you a ‘weird’ person who does puzzles, and millions of people are interested,” he says. In this context, they are beginning to try the World Championship with other host cities. Alfonso Álvarez Ossorio comments that they will have to study it. “These years we have promoted it from Valladolid because the organizers are from here and thanks to the great support received from various associations, the city council and, of course, our sponsor, Ravensburguer, who provides us with 10,000 puzzles for the tournament,” he recalls.
But also, he emphasizes, in the town of Pisuerga it is clear that “in Spain we are lucky to have a welcoming culture with an incredible tourist offer. And for this reason, he says that associations like the Australian one have not missed any edition. Sun and beach? It seems that, in this case, sun and puzzle. And let the minute hand run.
