About Jigsaw

A picture cut into interlocking pieces and scattered around the empty frame. Drag a piece to where you think it belongs and it clicks home when it is close enough, so nothing has to be nudged into place a pixel at a time. Pieces you have not placed stay loose on the table, and the frame keeps what you have already built.

There are eight pictures, all made for this site: a harbour at dawn, an autumn lane, a spice market, an alpine lake, hot air balloons over farmland, a coral reef, an old bookshop and the northern lights. Each can be cut into 12, 24, 48 or 80 pieces, and every cut is generated fresh — the tabs and blanks are different each time, so the same picture is a different puzzle twice over. Turn on the turning cut and pieces arrive at random angles: tap one to rotate it a quarter turn, and only an upright piece will click in.

The daily challenge gives everyone the same picture and the same cut, and ranks the day by how quickly it goes back together. The picture changes each day, working through all eight before it comes round again. A reference copy of the picture sits beside the controls, the ghost button lays it faintly into the frame, and if you are truly stuck one piece can be placed for you — counted on the result, so a clean build still means something.

Tips to win

• Build the border first: every edge piece has a flat side, and the four corners have two
• Sort by colour before you sort by shape — a run of sky or water is quicker to narrow down than a run of tabs
• Work outwards from a piece you have placed; its neighbours are the easiest pieces on the table
• On the busy pictures, hunt for the odd detail — a gull, a scoop, a single orange fish — and the pieces around it fall into place