Edith Puzzles the World

At 6:30 PM (12:30 PM Eastern), Edith and Nick tackle their second puzzle of the day with hopes of a crack at the Pairs Final.

How’s it work?

For the Pairs Semifinals, each pair will receive the same as yet unreleased 500 piece puzzle to finish within a 60 minute time limit.

What’s at stake?

This time Edith and Nick need to be in the top 50 times of their round to advance to the Pairs Finals on Saturday. There are only 100 total slots available for the pairs Final because it will be a 1000 piece puzzle, requiring each pair to have their own table.

How to watch

Here’s the Livestream on YouTube, which will also be watchable after the event is over. Edith and Nick should be at 66 or 67.

How did Edith do?

Here’s the results page, which will probably take a while to be fully updated and accurate. It may crash as too many people are trying to view it so please be patient. Also remember that rankings will take a while to be finalized as times continue to be entered, and not necessarily in the order they finished. We’ll know times are final and official when puzzlers who qualified have a flashing “Q” next to them.

Who’s her competition?

Kathi from Germany and Chiara from Italy, who were the #2 pair at Worlds last year, did not disappoint for their first round puzzle. We saw strong showings from Australia, Spain, and the Netherlands in round 1 as well. From the USA, Kyle and Hannah came in 4th in their first round so we’re expecting big things!

Edith and Nick put up a very respectable 40:00 for their first round pair puzzle!

Rankings aren’t final yet but we feel confident they’ll be in the Semifinals this evening. That’s coming up at 6:30 PM local time (12:30 Eastern).

It’s time to switch gears as Edith and Nick begin their journey as a pair at 9AM Spain time (3AM Eastern).

How’s it work?

In the Pairs category, there are four heats in the first round. Each pair will receive two puzzles to choose from to complete within the 75 minute time limit.

What’s at stake?

This round Edith and Nick need to be in the top 85 times of their round to advance to the Pairs Semifinals, which will occur this evening!

How to watch

Here’s the Livestream on YouTube, which will also be watchable after the event is over. Edith and Nick are sitting at table 126.

How did Edith do?

Here’s the results page, which will probably take a while to be fully updated and accurate. It may crash as too many people are trying to view it so please be patient. Also remember that rankings will take a while to be finalized as times continue to be entered, and not necessarily in the order they finished. We’ll know times are final and official when puzzlers who qualified have a flashing “Q” next to them.

Who’s her competition?

Some of the contenders to win it all are here in this first group. The conversation has to start with Kathi from Germany and Chiara from Italy, who were the #2 pair at Worlds last year. Justyna and Krystian from Poland will likely put on a good show. There are a couple of strong Australian pairs in this round as well. From the USA, Kyle and Hannah are pairing up in this round. I’m sure we’re going to see some impressive finishes!

Edith absolutely crushed her semifinal puzzle today, puzzling a totally new unreleased puzzle against some of the best in the world. And she finished in just under 50 minutes – one of her best times ever for her first attempt at a 500 piece puzzle!

Unfortunately in this field of very skilled puzzlers, Edith’s time of 49:48 was not in the top 60 to advance to the Individual Final.

The last person to qualify from Edith’s Semifinal round had a time of 47:36. To give you an idea of how close together these puzzle finishes were, that means that 15 more people finished in just under a minute after that to put Edith in 75th place!

We knew going into this event that qualifying for Finals would be a close call. Edith had a lot of fun even puzzling in the heat of the dome, and she posted a fantastic time today! She’s excited to puzzle in the pairs competition with her partner Nick tomorrow, and then teams on Friday. Even though this is the end of her Individual journey for Worlds this year, there’s lots more puzzling to come!

Edith is back again at 4PM Spain time (10AM US Eastern) for her Individual Semifinal!

How’s it work?

The top 85 competitors from rounds A and B will be duking it out for a chance to advance to the Finals on Saturday. This time every puzzler will be receiving the same totally new, unreleased puzzle to finish as fast as they can, with only 75 minutes of time available. But remember, this is now a condensed field of very skilled puzzlers who moved on from the first round!

How to watch

Here’s the Livestream on YouTube, which will also be watchable after the event is over.

How did Edith do?

Here’s the results page, which will probably take a while to be fully updated and accurate. It may crash as too many people are trying to view it so please be patient. Also remember that rankings will take a while to be finalized as times continue to be entered, and not necessarily in the order they finished. We’ll know times are final and official when puzzlers who qualified have a flashing “Q” next to them.

What’s at stake?

This time Edith needs to be in the top 60 times in her group to move on to the individual Finals on Saturday.

Who’s her competition?

We’ve seen some great performances from puzzlers in rounds A and B. Wiktor from Poland is certainly a strong contender to win the entire competition, so many eyes will be on him. Jana from Czech Republic and Chiara from Italy should still give a good showing. Hannah Doyle was a close second at US nationals in April. And of course there are lots of other names here capable of posting great times. Keep in mind that unreleased puzzles may yield some different results from the first round (for example, I don’t think Wiktor will manage a 22 minute finish like he did yesterday 😲).

She did it!!! 🥂🍻🍾✌️🥳🎉🎊🤘👏

Sitting pretty at #50, Edith should be moving on to the Individual Semifinal. Her round will be at 4PM local time again (10AM Eastern).

I didn’t explain it here before, but in the first round puzzlers received two puzzles and had to choose which to do before the actual competition began. Edith chose the Desserts circular puzzle over the Lake Como rectangular puzzle. The first round of Pairs will work similarly to this, but from Semifinals onward puzzlers will all be receiving the same, as yet totally unreleased puzzle.

Tomorrow morning, we’ll be cheering on Edith’s teammates Darya (Group D) and Nick (Group E), then getting ready for Edith’s Semifinal!

The time has come! Official competition kicks off at 4PM Spain time (10AM US Eastern) with the Individual First Round Group A, which is Edith’s round!

How to watch

Here’s the Livestream on YouTube, which will also be watchable after the event is over.

How did Edith do?

Here’s the results page, which will probably take a while to be fully updated and accurate. It may crash as too many people are trying to view it so please be patient.

What’s at stake?

Edith needs to be one of the top 85 times in her group to move on to the individual Semifinal tomorrow.

Who’s her competition?

There are many top international puzzlers in the same first round as Edith. Big names to watch for include Chiara from Italy, Jana from Czech Republic, and Lenka from Slovakia. The biggest USA names we recognize this round are Hanna Sigler and Sammy Brownlow. But of course we are rooting for everyone, and there can always be new competitors on the scene to surprise us!

Last year the results pages crashed during almost every event because people kept refreshing them, so please keep in mind that live results may take a while to be accurate.

Names with a Q next to them are officially qualified to move to the next round.

Individual Group A Results

Individual Semifinal AB Results

Pairs Group A Results

Pairs Semifinals AB Results

Teams Group A Results

Livestream links are posted! Don’t worry if you can’t catch the action live; these links should take you to the full videos of each event once the live streams are over.

Edith’s Individual First Round Group A

Tuesday 9/16 10AM Eastern

Edith’s Semifinal Groups A+B

Wednesday 9/17 10AM Eastern

Edith and Nick’s Pairs First Round Group A

Thursday 9/18 3AM Eastern

Edith and Nick’s Pairs Semifinals Groups A+B

Thursday 9/18 12:30 PM Eastern

N E E D for Speed’s Team First Round Group A

Friday 9/19 3AM Eastern

Pairs Final

Saturday 9/20 10 AM Eastern

Individual Final

Saturday 9/20 12:45 PM Eastern

Teams Final

Sunday 9/21 4AM Eastern

You can also find these videos posted to the World Jigsaw Puzzle Federation’s Youtube Channel, as well as live streams for the other rounds if you want to check out Edith’s competition.

Which events is Edith participating in?

Individual (by herself 😳), pairs with Columbus puzzler friend Nicholas (Nick), and teams with Nick and two lovely Californian puzzlers, Elizabeth and Darya on the team N E E D for Speed. There is a space between each letter in “NEED” because otherwise it was lowercase, and since it is our initials, we needed it to be uppercase.

Who are these people Edith is teaming up with?

Edith and Nick met at the Ohio Championship last year (2024), and Nick set up the OHJPA Discord channel for Ohio puzzlers to connect online. Elizabeth saw that Edith was about to finish her preliminary puzzle at the USA Nationals this April and there was no camera person nearby, so she recorded a video from the sideline and gave Edith the video after. Darya met Edith when Edith noticed her amazing hair at USA Nationals and complimented her for it. They are all very fast puzzlers, but more importantly very friendly people!

What is Speed Jigsaw Puzzling?

Competitors try to finish putting a jigsaw puzzle together as fast as they can. All competitors in a heat will receive the same puzzle, but they won’t be able to see the puzzle until the heat begins. From there they race to put it together!

Will Edith win?

No.

Are you sure? Not even a chance?

It cannot be overstated how much Edith will not come first in any of the events. There are folks, we’ll call them, “Elite puzzlers” who can do a 500 piece puzzle in 25-35 minutes. Edith has never done one in less than 45 minutes. There are new prizes this year like one for fastest debut puzzler, but Edith will not win that. There are not real prizes like best dressed, but Edith will not win that (even though the shirts Elizabeth made are awesome, and definitely prize-worthy!).

Oh. I want to cheer for the winner. Who should I cheer for instead?

Last year’s winner, Kristin, is taking this year off, so the field is open. Favorites include Alejandro from Spain (winner before Kristin), and several Polish puzzlers – Krystian, Wiktor, and Weronika. From the USA, Hannah has had a breakout year and Mari has been constantly improving. Or almost anybody* else could win, that’s what makes this exciting!

*Nope, still will not be Edith, but I like that you tried.

I AM HERE BECAUSE I LOVE EDITH AND DO NOT CARE THAT SHE WILL NOT WIN. SHE IS THE FASTEST PUZZLER IN OHIO.

Thank you. She loves you too. Things that it would be great for Edith to do include: make new friends, puzzle really well (subjective, but she’ll know it if she feels it), get a new personal best, make it to all three finals, and have fun!

OK, fine. So how is this competition set up? How does Edith advance?

The Individual division is broken up into a First Round, Semifinal, and Final. In each round puzzlers will have a 500 piece puzzle to complete by themselves. The best puzzlers from 6 First Round heats will advance to 3 Semifinal heats, and the best from those will advance to the Final.

Pairs is set up similarly, with 4 First Round heats, 2 Semifinal heats, and then a Final. The First Round and Semifinal heats will be a 500 piece puzzle for the pairs to complete together, and then Finals will be a 1000 piece.

For Teams, there are 4 First Round heats, and the best teams from each will advance to one Final. The Team competitions consist of two 1000 piece puzzles completed back to back by each team of 4 puzzlers; once the first is completed, it must be put back into its box completely before the second puzzle can be started.