Meet St. Paul's Sarah Schuler, one of the world's fastest puzzlers
ST. PAUL, Minn. — The fastest puzzlers in the world just battled it out in Spain at the World Jigsaw Puzzle Championship.
Among them was a puzzle pro from St. Paul, Sarah Schuler.
"We've always had puzzles in our family," Schuler said. "My mom and uncle would compete at the St. Paul Winter Carnival contest."
The pieces started to really come together about 14 years ago, when Schuler was just a teenager.
"They're like, 'Sarah, do you want to come be part of the team?' And ever since then I've been competing in puzzle competitions," she said.
After over a decade of competing, she left her IT job for puzzling in 2021.
"It's kind of crazy to say I do jigsaw puzzles full-time, but that is my job. I don't compete full-time, but I consult with a few different puzzle companies, doing social media, helping them connect with influencers, creating content," said Schuler.
In late September, Schuler and three friends spread out across the country joined forces to enter the World Jigsaw Puzzle Championship for the first time.
"It's literally like the Power Rangers of puzzling," said Schuler.
The team had more "go-go power" than they expected.
"We're all pretty fast so we knew we would do decently well, but I did not expect to get second place in pairs and teams. Like, that was beyond my wildest dreams," she said.
A popular strategy is to put the edges of the puzzle together first. In competition, someone is usually assigned that task. After that, it's pretty loose.
"You just call out like hey, I see these like red birds or this pink flower or this blue sky, and you kind of just call what you want to do," she said.
Wanting to see the process firsthand, we brought Schuler a puzzle to assemble while putting her on the clock. Schuler went to work on the 500-piece Halloween puzzle, which she thinks she can complete in 45 to 55 minutes — even while being peppered with questions.
"I really like puzzling with audiobooks," she said when asked if she listened to music while working.
Schuler's fast fingers rarely stop as the image begins to take shape. She pops the final pieces in with a time of 52:08.
While it seems frantic, Schuler says it's a case of going fast to slow down.
"I think that the adrenaline rush and the satisfaction of getting that done in such a short amount of time is just so calming for me at the end," she said.
Schuler plans to compete in the World Jigsaw Puzzle Championship again next year.
She blogs and reviews puzzles at her website, sarahdoespuzzles.com, and on Instagram: @SarahDoesPuzzles.
