Most people think of putting together a jigsaw puzzle as a low-key activity, a landscape slowly taking shape on the dining room table over the course of several days. But puzzling can also be a sport, as I discovered recently at a competition held at a local brewery.
The goal? To assemble a 500-piece puzzle as quickly as possible, with prizes for the top three teams and a two-hour cutoff. As a duo competing in a four-person event, my sister and I had no illusions that we would place. But we didn’t realize quite how out of our depth we were until we arrived to find teams scouting out the best tables, piece-sorting trays and practice puzzles in hand.
At the countdown of “five, four, three, two, one, puzzle!” we opened the drawstring bag containing our puzzle and began frantically flipping over pieces. The winning team finished in slightly over 17 minutes. At that point, we had just completed the border.
This wasn’t a fluke: Minnesota has a stellar speed-puzzling scene. The weather may be a factor—long winters and humid summers make indoor hobbies appealing—but much of the credit goes to a robust lineup of puzzling competitions, local puzzle companies, and a supportive community of local puzzlers who put all those pieces together.
The Big Competitions
The Winter Carnival Jigsaw Puzzle Competition isn’t just the largest puzzle competition in Minnesota—it’s the largest in the country, attracting competitors from across the U.S. and Canada.
“I think the world competition in Spain is the only one that's bigger in the world than Winter Carnival … We had about 2,000 people last year,” says Cynthia Schreiner Smith, former champion and current chair of the competition.
Smith isn’t sure how long the Winter Carnival competition has been running. It’s come and gone over the decades, with Monika Kopet reviving the event in 2010. Smith has overseen its dramatic expansion in recent years, moving it from the Landmark Center to St. Paul’s Union Depot and adding another day to accommodate more competitors.
Events include the four-person team challenge division for elite puzzlers; the four-person open division (which is split into three heats, since it’s the the most popular event); pair, solo, and family competitions; and the 1,000-piece competition (all other events use 500-piece puzzles).
“Yes, it's competitive, but you've never been at a competition where people stop and just cheer for each other, and they're so excited when somebody else wins,” Smith says.
The Winter Carnival Jigsaw Puzzle Competition’s high profile is partially thanks to the 2014 full-length documentary Wicker Kittens, which follows several teams, including Smith’s, as they prepare and compete. (The film is available to stream for free on Kanopy with a Hennepin or Ramsey County library card or via Hoopla in Dakota County.) “It was on a Sports Illustrated list of the top 10 best documentaries about a sport you've never heard of,” says Smith, chuckling.
“That documentary elevated the profile of speed puzzling,” says Valerie Coit of Duluth, who was also featured as a competitor in Wicker Kittens. At the 2020 Winter Carnival, she was approached by Tammy McLeod of California, who recognized her from the documentary, about starting a national organization with the goals of creating community, formalizing a competitive puzzling framework, and acting as the U.S. liaison to the World Jigsaw Puzzle Federation.
McLeod, Coit, and other founders officially launched the USA Jigsaw Puzzle Association (USAJPA) in May 2020, and it’s since grown to nearly 2,800 members. The USAJPA’s five-person board currently includes two Minnesotans: Coit and Heather Mueller, who lives in Plymouth.
“Minnesota is above and beyond in terms of the community of speed puzzlers,” says Mueller. “Puzzling is in the zeitgeist,” adds Coit, noting that the Minnesota Jigsaw Puzzle Association is the USAPJA’s longest-running state affiliate organization. On a national level, the USAJPA offers virtual contests and meetups as well as the in-person USA Jigsaw Nationals & Convention (the 2026 event will be held March 27-29 in Atlanta).
“In terms of in-person competitions, Minnesota definitely has the most going on,” says Jonathan Cluff, owner and founder of speedpuzzling.com. Cluff, who lives in Texas, became aware of the Winter Carnival thanks to Wicker Kittens and has since traveled to St. Paul to compete.
Cluff hosts nearly 200 virtual and in-person competitions throughout the year, including all 50 state championships. He’ll be in town soon for the Minnesota Speed Puzzling Championship, which this year will be held at the Brooklyn Park Community Activity Center on November 8 and features solo, pair relay, pair, and team competitions in junior, adult, and senior divisions. “It's not the largest contest in Minnesota, but it's definitely the second-largest after the Winter Carnival,” he says.
The Smaller Competitions
If the Winter Carnival, USAJPA, and the Minnesota state championship represent the structured, competitive side of speed puzzling, Sarah Does Puzzles offers a more casual option, with contests at breweries across the Twin Cities metro nearly every night of the week. (The contest I attended was a Sarah Does Puzzles event).
Founder Sarah Schuler is a beloved figure in Minnesota’s puzzle scene. A lifelong puzzler, she was part of the second-place pair and second-place team at the 2023 World Jigsaw Puzzle Championship, and she took second place in the individual, pair, and team events at the 2024 USA Jigsaw Nationals.
“It's such a weird hobby to have! It's also become my entire personality, but that's okay, because I love it,” Schuler says with a laugh.
In 2021, she quit her day job in IT to pursue a full-time career in puzzling, initially consulting for puzzle companies. She launched the competition side of her business in early 2024, and within a few weeks, there was enough demand to quit her consulting gigs. Today, she has five employees, and over 5,000 teams and pairs have competed in a Sarah Does Puzzles-hosted contest to date.
In addition to Sarah Does Puzzles, several Minnesota cities, community ed departments, and library systems host annual competitions. For those looking to take their puzzling to the next level, Smith teaches a speed puzzling class through St. Paul Community Education.
Puzzlers also hone their skills on their own. Laura Given, a school library media specialist who competes with fellow educators, describes herself as “casual fast.” Her team has tested out different strategies for dumping out, flipping over, and sorting pieces, and they’ve identified each team member's strengths: Mary is the border person, and Emily can pick out subtle differences in color.
Kate Amey, who has competed at Winter Carnival, nationals, speedpuzzling.com virtual events, and Sarah Does Puzzles contests, says she puzzles “pretty much every day” and had completed about 275 puzzles so far this year when we spoke in early October. “Leading up to nationals last year, our team got together probably 15 times at my house,” she says. “We practiced everything from doing the puzzle to putting the puzzle back in the box and going on to the next puzzle, just to get a rhythm and the flow with the team.”
The Puzzle Companies
There are also local puzzle companies boosting Minnesota’s puzzling scene. PuzzleTwist is a Minnesota-based brand that commissions local artists including Adam Turman, Tim Chapman, Cindy Lindgren, Michael Birawer, Mark Herman, and Steve Thomas to create Minnesota and Midwestern-themed puzzles.
“Something that sets us apart from other jigsaw puzzle companies is that we’re regional,” says Tony Nelson, who launched PuzzleTwist in 2010 with his wife Candace. Another difference? The puzzles are slightly different from the image depicted on the box.
“The intent is to make the actual assembly process more engaging and more fun, because you have little surprises you uncover,” says Nelson. “We weren't trying to be a difficult puzzle, we were trying to have a more fun experience.”
PuzzleTwist has become a pillar of Minnesota’s speed puzzling community, sponsoring various local competitions, running a virtual Holiday Puzzle Derby to benefit Second Harvest Heartland, and creating brand-new puzzles for the Winter Carnival competition.
“Every other contest, the people organizing it get to pick the puzzles,” says Smith. “[With Winter Carnival] I don't get to see them until they're delivered.”
“I think Minnesotans get excited about Minnesota. Rather than doing a scenic European landscape, people like to do one that has the Minnesota state capital in the background or one that has Minnesota not-so-nice things like mosquitoes or a bear going through a campsite,” says Schuler.
Rice Creative Services is another Minnesota-based puzzle company, offering several puzzles featuring local trivia, landmarks, and even hotdishes. Graphic designer Melanie Rice hand-draws the whimsical art for each puzzle, and two new puzzles featuring Minnesota desserts and animals will be available in January 2026.
The Community
“So the biggest question I get is, ‘I have absolutely no chance of winning. Why would I enter this puzzle contest?’” says Smith of the Winter Carnival’s increasingly competitive events. “There are so many reasons to do it. Number one, you are in a room with a whole bunch of other people who absolutely adore puzzles. And you will never find a nicer group of people. You will make so many new friends.”
“It's a really supportive community,” agrees Schuler. “We say that it's very similar to The Great British Bake Off, where you want to win, but you want everyone to have a really good bake—you want to win the puzzle contest, but you want everyone to do well on the puzzle.”
Nelson likens competitive puzzling to running a 5K. “The joy of it and the victory of it is not so much winning, but taking part with other people and finishing the event," he says
“My customer base is the kindest, most generous, honest group of people I've ever met,” says Cluff. “People actually contact me to let me know I recorded their time incorrectly and they were two seconds slower.”
Although she’s on a team with her work colleagues, Given says that puzzle competitions have become their third space as they’ve bonded on a more personal level. “I am a big introvert and it feels like a nice activity to go out with people, but with a start and an end time,” she says with a laugh. “Also, you don't have to facilitate a conversation the whole time!”
Coit notes that puzzling is a relatively accessible sport. Budget-friendly puzzles are readily available at thrift stores, and online competitions make it possible for folks to participate without needing to leave their homes. She also emphasizes the friendly, welcoming nature of puzzling competitions. “I think that's helped the sport to grow—once people discover the community, that keeps them around,” she says.
I’ve experienced that atmosphere myself. When my sister and I finished our puzzle in 1:03:37 (21st out of 24 teams) Schuler came over to take down our time and congratulate us, pointing out that we beat the other pair and two teams of four.
“Sometimes my new teams, when they're done, they'll be like, ‘Wow, I'm sweating. I physically exerted myself doing this puzzle.’ I always say if you're not sweating, you're not puzzling hard enough!” Schuler told me later. “I think people really like that adrenaline rush that you get from it, and the satisfaction of completing a puzzle? That's unmatched.”
