THE PUZZLE OF PUZZLES
My back aches. I’m sweating. My bladder is sending out distress signals. I’ve been going full throttle for three hours, and still have five hours to go, but I can’t slow down. Not when the stakes are so high: I’m representing my country among a crowd of the best competitors on earth, sandwiched between teams from Turkey and Bulgaria.
I am competing in the equivalent of an Ironman triathlon for assembling little cardboard pieces. No, seriously. I’m part of Team USA at the World Jigsaw Puzzle Championship.
A few months ago, I didn’t know such a competition existed. But it does and these people are serious. Several hundred have gathered in a small city in Spain after years of training.
I’ve joined them not because I’m particularly brilliant at jigsaw puzzles but because I’m a true believer. I believe puzzles – jigsaws, as well as crosswords, sudokus, Rubik’s Cubes and all the other genres – aren’t just time-wasting hobbies. I believe puzzles can make us better thinkers and better people – maybe even help save the world. This tournament is a crucial part of my quest, despite the risk of a public whomping.
Team USA consists of me, my wife and two of our teenage sons. We are at one of dozens of tables inside a hot, bubble-shaped dome. We’ve practised for a month, but nothing like the jigsaw masters, who have trained several hours a day for years.
A few hours earlier, a man in a blazer read out the instructions into a microphone: we had eight hours to complete four
