How to Do a Jigsaw Puzzle Faster: 10 Tips

What is a jigsaw puzzle?

A jigsaw puzzle is a picture cut into many small pieces that you put back together. Most pieces lock into their neighbours with rounded tabs (the bits that stick out) and blanks (the holes they fit into). The first jigsaws are usually credited to John Spilsbury, a London mapmaker who mounted maps on wood and cut them along the country borders around 1760, as a way to teach geography. The name came later, from the saws used to cut wooden puzzles.

Every piece is one of three kinds, and knowing which is the first step of almost every strategy:

1. Start with the corners and edges

Straight-sided pieces are the easiest to spot and they can only go in one place: the border. Find the four corners first, then put the edges around them. A finished frame tells you the exact size of the puzzle and gives every other piece something to attach to.

On GameLake, tap Edges and the tray shows only the straight-sided pieces, so you can build the frame without hunting through the whole pile.

2. Sort the rest by colour

Before you start the middle, split the loose pieces into rough colour groups: sky, water, grass, the bright bits. Sorting feels slow, but it means you search through 10 pieces instead of 60 every time you need one. On a big physical puzzle, use trays or box lids. On GameLake, a loose piece stays wherever you let go of it, so you can park each colour group in its own spot around the board.

3. Keep looking at the picture

The reference picture tells you where each colour group belongs: sky at the top, water and grass near the bottom, a bright object off to one side. Glance at it whenever you pick up a new group. GameLake's Ghost option shows a faint copy of the finished picture on the board itself. It's on in Easy, you can switch it on in Medium and the Daily, and Hard has none.

4. Do the distinctive parts next

Faces, writing, strong outlines and bright, unusual colours are easy to place because there's only one spot they can belong. In GameLake's lake pictures that's usually Hop the frog, a game piece or a lily pad. Finish those islands of detail first and the puzzle breaks into smaller, easier areas.

5. Build out from what's already placed

A gap that already has two or three neighbours around it is far easier to fill than a gap in open space, because the piece has to match colour on several sides and fit several tabs at once. Work inward from the frame and outward from finished areas instead of starting new patches in the middle.

6. Read the shapes, not just the colours

When a whole area is one colour, shape is the only clue left. Look at each piece's four sides: how many tabs, how many blanks, and in what order. A gap with blanks on its left and right needs a piece with tabs on both of those sides. Sorting the sky pieces into groups like "two tabs opposite each other" or "three tabs, one blank" narrows each search down to a handful of candidates.

Pieces on GameLake don't need rotating: they come the right way up, so the tab pattern you see is the one that has to match the gap.

7. Join small groups off the board

If two loose pieces obviously belong together (half a lily pad each, say), join them right away even if you don't know where they go yet. A group of three or four pieces is much easier to place than any single piece of it. On GameLake, drop a loose piece next to its partner and they snap together and move as one; then drop the whole group into place.

8. Leave the hardest area for last

Big plain areas are slow at the start because every piece looks the same and there are dozens of them. Leave them until the end: by then there are only a few pieces left, every gap has neighbours around it, and the last pieces practically place themselves.

9. Search one way at a time

Random grabbing wastes time. Pick one gap and scan the pieces in order for the right colour and shape, or pick one piece and scan the board for its gap. Don't switch between the two halfway. If a piece hasn't found a home in a minute, put it aside and move on.

10. Build up gradually and take breaks

Speed comes from practice. Start with a small puzzle and step up once the habits above feel natural. Fresh eyes help too: if you're stuck, look away for a minute and the piece you've been hunting for often jumps out when you come back.

For a fast time, finish quickly without using Teach me: the three-star result needs both. If you do get stuck, Teach me highlights a piece and tells you where it goes and why, following the same order as this guide: corners, then edges, then colours.

Frequently asked questions

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