Jigsaw puzzle

A puzzle [ PASL, pʊsl ] ( engl. [ pʌzl ] Mystery, Confusion ) is a mechanical puzzle, more precisely, a matching game, which attempts to piece together the puzzle pieces into a whole. The English word is jigsaw puzzle ( " jigsaws puzzles " ), since the first games were made with the scroll saw.

History

The puzzle is an old game. It was invented in 1767 in England by the engraver and map dealers John Spilsbury ( 1739-1769 ). To this end, he stuck a map of Great Britain on a piece of wood and sawed this along the boundary lines of the various counties. The player had to try to complete the card. So he sold his match game as " teaching aids to facilitate the geography teaching ." The parts were not like today interlocked usual. These so-called interlocking puzzle emerged only in the second half of the 19th century.

Early 20th century began the mass production of the puzzles so far handcrafted. This allowed the once expensive games offered less expensive, thus increasing their popularity. To date, on the principle of manufacturing has not changed a bit. A printed on cardboard design is broken down with a punch into many small parts. The handmade punches are so individual that the puzzle pieces look different. In giant puzzle partially several punches must be used. The most important progress made, the producer in the production of parts by ever more precise cuts. This is also one of the key quality characteristics of the puzzle, in addition to the pressure, and the stability of the color. The more accurate the parts are stamped, the lower is the probability parts to connect wrong.

Types and levels of difficulty

There are puzzles with five pieces for children or giant puzzles with more than 10,000 parts for the advanced. Currently the largest Puzzle ( Keith Haring: Double Retrospect ) has 32 ​​256 pieces and sold since 2010 by Ravensburger. Finish it has a footprint of 5.44 m × 1.92 m. The largest to date Puzzle ( Life, original: Vida ) had 24,000 parts and is marketed Educa since 2007 by the Spanish company. It was designed by the New Zealander Royce B. McClure. Finish it has a footprint of 4.28 m × 1.57 m and can be had for just under $ 300. Who surrenders can get the same design as the 3000. End of March 2014 will break the Spanish company Educa the world record and bring a puzzle called " Wildlife " on the market. With 33600 parts, it is then the largest ever marketed puzzle. Probably the smallest puzzle in the world was created in the Laser Zentrum Hannover. The puzzle consists of items the size of a dust particle, has a total area of ​​five square millimeters.

The difficulty may, in addition, the number of parts and the color features of the subject, such as large areas with low color gradations, be increased even further. Some ISPs send puzzles without motive template or mix two games together. A combination of two levels of difficulty are offered. Furthermore, there are puzzles that are printed on both sides with (different ) motives, so that you still have to decide in addition, that the "right" side of each puzzle piece. Moreover puzzles are offered without being cut edge, where some additional parts were added that do not belong to the subject. Here the challenge is not only to lay the puzzle, but in finding out the unnecessary parts.

From Ravensburger there as "Puzzle Challenge " two puzzles (2006) without motive, the Krypt silver ( 654 parts) and the Krypt Bronze (631 parts), in which only due to the shape of the puzzle pieces an empty silver-gray ( 654 parts) or bronze - tinted surface (70 cm × 50 cm) is put together. This series has been complemented by other colors.

Competitions

Although the game is particularly suited for single player, there are competitions in puzzles, in which the participants take the same subject and this in the shortest possible time.

On 26 September 2004, the city hosted the first German king Brunn Puzzletag and achieved a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for the world record in the laying of the longest chain puzzle.

On September 17, 2006 King Brunn ran against the City of Buxtehude on 2nd German Puzzletag. Both cities should put as 5,000 puzzles of different sizes in five hours. King Brunn won the duel.

On 28 September 2008, the third German Puzzletag was held in Ravensburg. The entry in the Guinness Book of World Records has been broken for the largest puzzle in the world with most parts. The world record - puzzle consists of 4,088 individual puzzles, the edges of which are joined together seamlessly until it formed a coherent giant puzzle with a total of 1,034,378 pieces. The Ravensburger surpassed their performance the old puzzle record of approximately 212,000 parts, which was set up in 2002 in Singapore to five times. The Ravensburger AG produced the puzzle for the world record.

Variants

Manufacturer

Larger puzzle manufacturer with more than 70 different themes are:

• Castorland
• Clementoni
• Educa
• Euro Graphics

• Heye Verlag
• Jumbo Games
• Masterpieces
• Piatnik

• Ravensburger
• Schmidt Spiele
• SunsOut
• Trefl