The very first European Jigsaw Puzzle Championship (EJPC) took place in Budapest, Hungary 4.-6.7.2025. It was organized by the Hungarian Jigsaw Puzzle Association (Mope Puzzle), and I can confidently say it was the best-organized puzzle competition I’ve ever attended. Everything ran so smoothly from start to finish.The volunteers were efficient and clearly understood their roles, in addition of keeping up a positive spirit. In general the venue worked well. The competition and audience areas were located in the same hall, but the space was large, and the distance made it possible to talk there without disturbing the competitors. Even the air conditioning performed well, making the venue decently cool in the +30 celsius summer heat. The drinks from the café were also ice-cold, which was incredibly refreshing in the heat.The livestream was available and worked pretty well. The host, Fruzi, had put a lot of time and care into preparing for it. The result was professional and engaging and the broadcast helped remote viewers keep up with the event. The event photographer did also an outstanding job, capturing not just the competition but also the emotions, atmosphere, and small, fun moments behind the scenes. These were some of the best competition photos I’ve seen so far.One detail that I found interesting was a rule that set this competition apart: missing pieces did not result in a 10 second time penalty. There was no penalty, but the missing pieces were noted and that affected the results in case of a tie. I’m not sure if this had an impact on the results, but it’s an interesting variation from the standard rules used elsewhere, so I wanted to mention that.
As for the puzzles, this event was a dream come true for any enthusiast. Every participant received a 1000-piece Trefl puzzle of their choice (from four options) at registration. You also got to keep the competition puzzles from the rounds you participated in. In addition, there were two puzzle stands available at the venue, one by Trefl and one by Ravensburger, where participants could browse and buy additional puzzles. It was refreshing to do puzzles from more than one brand.All Trefl puzzles used in the competition were unpublished, and Trefl actually launched 500-piece Premium Plus Quality puzzles at the event. Previously, this cut and quality were only available in 1000-piece puzzles. I have to admit that my favorite Trefl quality is Premium Quality. (I’m aware this is not a common opinion, but somehow my brain understands the cut extremely well.) Having said that, I think it was fair and exciting that no contestant knew exactly how the cut would be in advance. Unfortunately, all new Trefl 500-piece puzzles were printed to the back of the puzzle boxes, and were exposed after the first round. So the only true surprises were the first individual round puzzle and the pairs final puzzle, which was 1000-pieces, and not printed to the 500-piece puzzle’s boxes. Despite this issue, the initiative to use brand new puzzles in a competition was a huge step towards the right direction.I found it interesting, that the new Trefl puzzles had similarities to puzzles used in the World Jigsaw Puzzle Championships the previous year. We saw one travel-inspired moodboard from the same artist, and the pairs final puzzle was an illustrated artwork of the competition location (WJPC 2024: Valladolid, EJPC 2025: Budapest). One of the EJPC team’s prelim puzzles and the WJPC individual final puzzle featured Jan Patrick Krasny’s artworks. In addition, two EJPC pairs puzzles and three teams prelim puzzles featured Dominic Davison’s artworks, and so did one of the WJPC teams final puzzles in 2024. Overall Dominic Davison’s artworks dominated the puzzles in EJPC: 5 out of 17 puzzles were based on his artworks, 2 out of 17 were AI designs, and the rest were based on works by different artists. So yes, we also saw two AI art puzzles in the competition, which is interesting due to the ongoing AI puzzle art debate.
Individual competition puzzles (images taken from Mope puzzle’s EJPC website)Individual prelim A had the Farm Truck puzzle, which depicts a truck on a farm, just as the name suggests. Image credits are given to Trefl and Leonardo AI, which is an AI image generator. Based on the results, this puzzle was the second fastest individual puzzle with the average finishing time of 57:24. The top 8 finished in under 40 minutes, followed by 26 contestants finishing between 40 and 50 minutes. In total, 65 contestants (53,72%) completed the puzzle within an hour, and 104 out of the 121 contestants (85,95%) completed it within the given time (1:30). The last contestant to qualify for the finals had a time of 59:35, leaving three contestants who also finished in under an hour out of the finals.Individual prelim B had the Wanderlust Moodboard puzzle, which is a collage of polaroid pictures of famous tourist landmarks. The artwork is made by Liliia, who also designed one WJPC 2024 puzzle, and it was licensed by MGL Licensing, an art licensing company representing over 70 artists. The original artwork is part of the MGL database Artbeat Studio collection, which appears to be the source of many well-known puzzle images. This seemed to be a more challenging puzzle to complete (the average finishing time was 1:02:51). Only the top three finished in under 40 minutes, and 44 contestants (34,38%) managed to complete the puzzle in an hour. In total, 101 out of 128 contestants (78,91%) completed the puzzle within the given time, and the last contestant qualified for the finals with a time of 1:06:21.Individual prelim C had the Camper Van puzzle, which portrays a cozy camper van set up in the mountains. The artwork is by Kathryn O. and licensed by MGL Licensing. It’s also part of MGL’s Artbeat Studio collection. Unfortunately, this is pretty much all the information of the artist and the artwork I was able to find. This puzzle was another fast individual puzzle. The average finishing time was 58:01 and 12 contestants finished in under 40 minutes and 66 contestants (51,97%) finished within an hour. In total, 114 out of 137 contestants (83,21%) completed the puzzle within the given time. The last contestant to qualify for the finals had a time of 57:47, leaving four contestants who finished in under an hour out of the finals.The individual final featured The Magic Tree puzzle, which depicts (surprise, surprise) a magical tree. The names of the Trefl puzzles are quite literally descriptive! Image credits are given to Trefl and Leonardo AI. This seemed to be a tricky puzzle, if not the trickiest one of the individual competition (keep in mind that only the fastest contestants participated in the final). In total, 157 out of 186 contestants (84,41%) finished the puzzle within the given time (1:15, which is shorter than in earlier rounds), 77 contestants (41,40%) made it in an hour, and the average finishing time was 1:00:05. Only two contestants completed it in under 40 minutes: Kathi Reiner won the European Champion title with an astonishing time of 38:12, followed by Weronika Huptas (39:22) and Wiktor Kacprzak (40:16).
Pairs competition puzzles (images taken from Mope puzzle’s EJPC website)Pairs prelim A had a 500-piece Manhattan Bridge View -puzzle and pairs prelim B Paris Corner Cafe -puzzle. Both were designed by Dominic Davison, a UK based artist whose artworks are widely used in puzzles and loved by puzzlers. Davison depicts land- and cityscapes in his artworks, and is known from his cottage views and mediterranean sceneries. The images of EJPC pairs prelim puzzles were somewhat similar cityscapes with houses, cars and famous landmarks. Both puzzles also seemed to be equally difficult: average finishing time in prelim A was 43:18 and in prelim B 44:12. In prelim A the top three finished the puzzle in less than 25 minutes, 77 pairs in less than 50 minutes, and 108 out of 124 contestants (87,10%) finished the puzzle in given time. The last pair qualified to the final with the time of 42:22. In prelim B top 5 finished in less than 25 minutes, 75 pairs in less than 50 minutes, and 109 out of 127 contestants (84,50%) finished the puzzle in the given time. The last pair qualified to the final with the time of 40:50.Pairs finał puzzle was called Budapest, Hungary. This 1000-piece puzzle was designed by Adrian Wilczynski, a self-taught Polish artist who’s specialized in illustrating books and puzzles. Wilczynski’s works have been used by Figgle puzzles in addition to Trefl. The level of competition was high in the final: Kathi Reiner and Chiara Dellantonio won the title with the time of 50:21, followed by Anna Kazana and Weronika Huptas (51:55), and Tereza Koptíková and Marketa Freislerová (57:09). The average finishing time was 1:23:08 and 96% of the pairs completed the puzzle. Only four pairs didn’t finish – and they all had more than 900 pieces assembled.
In teams prelims, teams had to choose two puzzles out of four, so there was some room for strategy. I found that interesting, so I went through what puzzles were popular and analyzed a bit of their difficulty too. Teams prelims had published Ravensburger puzzles, but teams final puzzles were unpublished, which was great.
Teams Prelim A puzzles (images taken from Mope puzzle’s EJPC website)The first puzzle in prelim A was Hillside Cottage by Howard Robinson. Robinson is a UK based artist and wildlife enthusiasts, who’s best known for his animal collages. He has also created several artworks of cottage’s and many puzzle brands, including Ceaco, Stave and Ravensburger, have used Robinson’s artworks in their puzzles. In EJPC, 19 teams chose this puzzle: seven teams began with it and they all completed it successfully. 12 teams did it as their second one and nine of them finished. I’d estimate this to be a mediocre puzzle: three teams completed it in an hour and the average finishing time was 1:13:50.The second puzzle in round A was The Dog Walker by Dean Macadam. Dean Macadam is an American artist who has designed several puzzles for Ravensburger, including puzzles for USA national championships. His cartoon style fantasy artworks have a solid fan base, however this was not a popular puzzle choice in EJPC. Most likely, because the puzzlers knew it’s a challenging one. Only six teams chose this puzzle and two managed to complete it. The average finishing time was 1:13:19, which doesn’t really mean much, because it’s based on two completion times. I’ve done this puzzle last year in a teams practice and can say that it was a challenge to overcome, so I’d rate it a challenging one based on my own experiences and the EJPC.In addition, teams prelim A featured two Dominic Davison puzzles: Grandiose Greece and Seaview Lane (Down the Lane Collection No 3). These puzzles were the most popular ones in this round. Grandiose Greece was chosen by 48 teams, 28 teams began with it and 20 teams chose it as their second one. Seaview Lane was chosen by 39 teams, 19 teams began with it and 20 teams chose it as their second one. Both puzzles seemed to be easy ones: 37 teams completed Seaview Lane with the average finishing time of 1:01:31 and 42 teams completed Grandiose Greece with the average time of 1:00:12. Grandiose Greece was the fastest puzzle in this round: eight teams completed it in less than 40 minutes and 26 teams (54,17%) in an hour.The most popular puzzle combination was Seaview Lane and Grandiose Greece. 31 teams chose this combination, which makes sense as these two puzzles were the most popular ones for this round. They were also the fastest puzzles, which shows in the results too: all of the top eight teams had chosen this combination. Second most popular combination was Hillside Cottage and Grandiose Greece, with 15 teams choosing these puzzles. No team chose to do The Dog Walker and Hillside Cottage, which is not a surprise, as both puzzles were the least chosen ones to begin with. Over all, prelim A’s average finishing time was 1:59:09. The fastest team finished in 1:16:38, and nine teams completed their puzzles in less than 1,5 hours. In total 80,36% (45 teams) finished both puzzles on time and 14,29% (8 teams) managed to complete one puzzle. Six teams got eliminated in this round, which means five teams that finished one puzzle advanced to finals.
Teams Prelim B puzzles (images taken from Mope puzzle’s EJPC website)Now, let’s go through the puzzles of teams prelim B. The first one was Beautiful Mushrooms by Nathanael Mortensen, an illustrator and digital artist specialized in puzzles and games. Mortensen was voted as the favorite puzzle artist 2024 in Puzzle Pals’ choice awards, so you can really say his colorful fantasy artworks are loved by the puzzle community. Mortensen has designed several puzzles for Ravensburger, including puzzles for the USA national championships. In EJPC, 50 teams chose to do Beautiful Mushrooms, so it was a popular one. 22 teams began with it and 21 completed it. 28 teams chose this as their second puzzle and 20 finished. I’d say this was mediocre difficulty puzzle: the average finishing time was 1:14:18, three teams completed the puzzle in less than 40 minutes and 19 teams (38%) made it in an hour.The second puzzle in this category was Adventures in the Jungle -puzzle by a Czech artist Jan Patrik Krasny. Krasny’s artwork often includes animals or fantasy creatures, such as unicorns. His artworks have been seen in Ravensburger puzzles earlier, in addition to many other common puzzle brands. 10 teams chose to do this puzzle: one team completed it as their first one and the rest chose it as their second puzzle (out of which one team finished). The average finishing time was 1:13:44; however, this data is not very reliable because only two teams finished this puzzle. I’d estimate this puzzle to be slightly trickier than Beautiful Mushrooms, because when scrolling through the results list, you can notice that the highest ranked teams avoided this puzzle – the 18th fastest team was the highest placed team who chose this puzzle.The third puzzle was Sunset over Amsterdam, yet another puzzle by Dominic Davison. This was the other not so popular puzzle in this round: seven teams chose it and five completed it. All three teams who did this as their first puzzle completed it, and two out of the four teams whose second choice this was also finished. The average finishing time for this puzzle was 49:50, because all teams who completed it made it in an hour, which is pretty fast actually, but we have to keep in mind the sample was limited.The last puzzle of this prelim was The One That Got Away -puzzle by Trevor Mitchell. Mitchell is a UK based artist whose artworks have been widely used in puzzles by Ravensburger, Gibsons, Falcon and WH Smith. He mostly covers British life in his paintings, from garden and cottage scenes to holidays and family life. This was the most popular puzzle in this teams round: 51 teams chose it and the average finishing time was 1:08:51. 33 teams began with this one and 31 of them completed it successfully. 18 teams chose it as their second puzzle and 15 out of them finished. I’d say this puzzle was an easy one, because five teams completed it in less than 40 minutes and 26 teams (50,98%) in an hour.The most popular puzzle combination was The One that Got Away and Beautiful Mushrooms. 42 teams chose that combination, which makes sense as these two puzzles were the most popular ones chosen for this round. No team chose Adventures in the Jungle and Sunset over Amsterdam combination, which is not a surprise, as both puzzles were the least chosen ones to begin with. Overall prelim B’s average finishing time was 1:52:49. The fastest team finished in 1:03:42, and eight teams completed their puzzles in less than 1,5 hours. 38 teams out of 59 teams (64,41%) finished both puzzles on time and 18 teams (30,51%) managed to complete one puzzle. Nine teams got eliminated in this round, which means 12 teams that finished one puzzle advanced to finals.
Teams final puzzles (images taken from Mope puzzle’s EJPC website)In the finals, there wasn’t room for strategizing, because the teams had to do the two puzzles in the given order. First the bag with a red sticker – Swirly Bird (artwork by Jennifer Lambein) followed by the second puzzle, Frida Kahlo’s Paradise: Parrots, Monkeys and Blossoms (licensed by Frida Kahlo Foundation). Both puzzles were from Ravensburger 2025 catalogue and published this summer around the time of EJPC. Unfortunately I was unable to find more information on the Frida Kahlo artwork and the artist. However, I did find out that Lambein’s artworks have previously been used in puzzles by Ceaco. Lambein is a licensing artist, specialized in home decor and stationery designs and her artworks often feature birds and butterflies combined with inspirational texts.With the average completion time of 1:29:35, Swirly Bird was a though nut to crack. Yet all teams managed to complete it and 15 teams made it in under an hour. Luckily Frida Kahlo seemed to be a bit easier puzzle, with the average completion time of 1:06:17. 24 teams completed it in an hour, despite the fact that it was their second puzzle.One interesting detail from teams final is that when looking at the mid-stage results of Swirly Bird, it is noticeable that the pace was pretty steady between teams: about 15 teams completed the puzzle per 10 minutes (meaning that 15 teams finished between one hour and 1h 10min, followed by 15 teams finishing between 1:20-1:30 and so on). Frida Kahlo had bit more variation in times.EJJ Squad, an International team representing Finland – Chiara Dellantonio, Kathi Reiner, Hanna Lehikoinen and Wiktor Kacprzak – secured the first place with an incredible time of 01:19:33, followed by Czech Puzzlequeens (Tereza Koptíková, Markéta Freislerová, Kateřina Klinková & Jana Ondroušková) and Hungarian team Need4Speed (Vanda Varga, Mercédesz Arthofer, Brigitta Pozsa & Brigitta Vinkler). Czech Puzzlequeens finished seven minutes after EJJ Squad, and Need4Speed were six minutes behind the Czechs. In total 62 teams out of 100 finalists completed both puzzles, with the average finishing time of 2:16:38.
EJPC was a beautifully organized event that delivered on every level. It brought the European puzzle community together, ran seamlessly, and paid attention to every detail. This makes the competition special. I’m really looking forward to the next ones! The level of competition was high, so last, but not least I’d like to send huge congrats to all winners and contestants for their incredible achievements! Well done!
