Have You Heard of Puzzle Chess?…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling, Miscellaneous11 Comments

A couple of months ago I learned about puzzle chess when I was doing some online window shopping for puzzles; I saw that Cobble Hill has a line of 100 piece jigsaw puzzles specifically designed to be perfect for the game of puzzle chess. Being intrigued, and loving to read and see and know as much about my beloved jigsaw puzzles as I can, of course I had to check it out.

I learned it’s a very simple game, the rules are few and easy to learn and anyone can have a game up and running in no time at all. So of course I wanted to play it, because it sounded to me like lots of fun – and I finally got the chance to play it last Friday with my bestest puzzle pal Penny when we met together for the first time. Wanna know something? I had a really good time and loved playing it with her, so I’m excited to tell all my tens of readers about it!

How long has puzzle chess been around? I have no idea. Like I said I only heard about it for the first time a few months ago. If you’re someone who participates in competitions you’ve probably seen it played, or at least know about it as there are competitions for it right alongside the regular puzzle competitions. The USA Jigsaw Puzzle Association has it’s rules and game play instructions on it’s website, so anyone can learn and play. Interested?

Want to learn puzzle chess? Here’s what you’ll need – a jigsaw puzzle, 200 pieces or less works best, a chess timer (or a chess timer app on your phone), and paper or something to cover up the pieces. Penny and I didn’t cover the pieces, but I’m telling you that’s part of the rules according to the JPA. Apparently the game can be one on one, or two versus two. Whatever you like.

To get ready turn all the pieces face up, separate the border pieces and cover the rest. Assemble the border together. Now you’re ready to begin. Place the chess clock where all players can reach it and set it for 30 minutes for each player or team. Whoever has the most time remaining when the puzzle is finished wins; or if your timer runs out before your opponent, you lose.

The rules (according to the JPA) are as follows:

  • Uncover the pieces, the first person to find a piece that connects to the border places it and hits their timer to start the clock
  • Players alternate placing pieces, all pieces must connect to an already placed piece or the border
  • You may only touch one loose piece at a time
  • Once a piece has been placed, stop your timer which starts your opponent’s timer
  • You may touch or try as many pieces as you want on your turn

So that’s it basically, five rules, a puzzle and a timer are all you need to play. Does it sound like fun? I thought so, so when Penny and I were making plans to meet for the first time ever I told her I’d love to try it with her. She agreed, and then I found an adorable 100 piece Halloween themed puzzle that was perfect for it.

Here we are, playing Puzzle Chess for the first time. It didn’t matter who won, we had a good time playing and that’s what was important to us. Neither of us are built for speed puzzling, that’s for sure. Being under the gun or the timer – it’s too much stress! Just a little bit of fun and a different way to puzzle, and happily we both enjoyed ourselves.

So that’s the game of Puzzle Chess. I think it would be a great game to play with anyone – a child, a senior, your partner, anyone who enjoys jigsaw puzzles basically. I’m definitely going to try and get hubby and my son interested, I think they’d enjoy it too. I’d better watch out though, they’re both WAAAAYYY more competitive than I am.

Still, it should be fun, and having fun spending time with my loved ones is what it’s all about. 💖

The Gang*

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

The Gang* – Unknown manufacturer – 150 pieces

This puzzle was just at my house somehow, because I have no memory of where it came from. There’s no markings at all on the test tube it came in showing the manufacturer, photographer, nothing at all. So it has been given a title by me, just for this post. It looks like a fun group doesn’t it? So this is “the gang” everyone. Wouldn’t you love to hang out with them for a little while, I certainly would!

The quality of these little puzzles is really quite good. Most mini or micro puzzles are only one piece shape – not these – there are a very good variety of shapes, beautiful reproduction, and a relatively good fit. This one was a little looser than Vivienne*, but still not bad at all. I wish I knew who made this puzzle so I could give them their props, because these little puzzles really impressed me.

As always, this picture is in Mom’s memory, she told me you can’t really tell the size of a very large or very small puzzle unless there is something for comparison. If you crop a picture to only show the puzzle you have no sense of the size, really. That was driven home to me when we finally assembled the entire 40,320 piece Disney puzzle. If you read along on the blog as I was assembling each section you couldn’t really tell how big each one actually was, but once you see it laid out in front of you there’s no forgetting it.

This puzzle wasn’t as big of an accomplishment, but still it made me happy, and taking that second picture made me think of mom and smile – what more could this old gal ask for? 💖

Peter Pan

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles2 Comments

Peter Pan – Mega Puzzles (Multipack) – 300 pieces

Here is a lesson in how much the image on a puzzle contributes to your enjoyment of said puzzle. The quality of this puzzle was exactly the same as the quality on Princess of the Sea; yet with this puzzle I found the quality to be much more annoying, and the assembly was just not as entertaining. It’s all about the image, baby!

I wasn’t keen on doing this one to be honest, but my son picked it out for me so off we went. It’s a good image for puzzling, and it was enjoyable, but just not what I was looking for at that time. That’s ok though, this puzzles makes five completed from the multipack of eight Disney puzzles, only three more to go. There are two 150 pieces (Phineas and Ferb, and Disney princesses) and a 500 piece called Dapper Dandies that I completed as a 300 piece puzzle many years ago, but think I will assemble again in this different piece count. There’s always a need for smaller puzzles here.

Five down, only three to go. I absolutely got my money’s worth from this thrift store purchase!

Spooky Treats In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling3 Comments

Spooky Treats – MicroPuzzles – 150 pieces

I’m running way behind schedule here, and have literally gotten out of bed this morning just to start a puzzle for this post! I had an appointment with my cardiologist yesterday and spent the rest of the day in bed – absolutely no puzzling went on at all unfortunately.

But, just in time I sorted and put together the border for this puzzle, and I can already tell that it isn’t going to be an easy one. The words are quite large and take up many more pieces than I bargained for. Usually putting together words is one of the most entertaining parts of a puzzle for me, but I think this one may be more difficult than most. Oh well, the only way forward is through, right?

Hope you’re puzzling something fun today!

Peacock and Pattern

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles8 Comments

Peacock and Pattern by Jane Tattersfield – Liberty Puzzles – 508 pieces

Man did I have a good time with this one, but it went together exactly the opposite of what I’d planned. When I looked at the image on the box I thought to myself that the easiest way to assemble this would be to start with the peacock in the center and work my way outwards. But when I was laying out all the pieces the puzzle told me that my initial plan was NOT the way to go.

Most wooden puzzles aren’t ones that you can start with the edges, especially if they are Victorian cut or have crazily shaped pieces. This image has a small border on it though, and that made it the most logical place for me to begin. Instead of rigidly sticking to my mental plan of how things were going to go together I decided to shift and let the puzzle lead where it wanted to go. After assembling the border, it flowed quite naturally into the yellow patterns, and so on. I did put together the peacock’s body and head earlier on, but the rest of him wasn’t finished until the very end.

This puzzle was more difficult than I’d bargained for, they’ve upped the difficulty level of their piece cuts at Liberty if you ask me. There were many times that I thought I knew exactly why I was looking for, but I most certainly did not. There were tabs where you thought you just needed to find that correct shape, but actually you would end up with two different pieces whose ends joined together to make the shape you needed. It’s hard to describe with words, but it was a tricky cut that required a little extra brain power, and it reminded me a bit of the 100+ year-old Parker Bros. Pasttime puzzle that mom and I assembled together.

Forgive the cockeyed picture, my apologies. Sometimes you can’t really tell on your phone whether you’ve got it right – or maybe that’s just me. I should blame my age, but I’m extremely tired today so please insert your own joke about old ladies and failing eyesight here…

Now that the jokes are out of the way, don’t you just love to see the back of such a well designed puzzle? I know I do!

They had this sort of picture setup on the Liberty website, and I loved it so much I wanted to recreate it here. It was fiddly work getting certain pieces out of the way without disturbing others, but I think it ended up making for an excellent picture, don’t you?

So many absolutely beautiful whimsy pieces in this puzzle, and so many multipiece whimsies as well. Aren’t they gorgeous? I need to get my thesaurus out and find some new adjectives to tell you how amazing these puzzles are. Fabulous!