Olympic Squares

Designer: Lucie Pauwels

This puzzle measures: 250 mm x 13 mm x 13 mm

Material: depends on product variant below

Lucie Pauwels wrote about it:
“I got the idea for this puzzle during the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. It didn’t work with the round shapes of the Olympic rings, so I used squares. I looked for a set of puzzle pieces that are all different and provide only one solution to the puzzle. I omitted the 5 colors of the Olympic rings because they made the puzzle too easy. Pelikan now provides a beautiful, high-quality version of this puzzle.”

Kevin Sadler wrote about it:
“Yes, another clever tray packing puzzle by Lucie. This follows a totally different premise than the Teapot puzzle. Instead of having to fill a cavity with shapes that get in each other’s way, the aim is to fill a pathway with relatively simple pieces but a very limited length to the paths. The complexity and the logic comes from the constraint formed by the intersection of the paths. This one has pieces made from Pink Oak but it will also be available in Merbau.
 
I started placing the larger pieces in the lengths of the paths and then trying to fill the smaller gaps that were left after that.This seemed like a really good idea but it did not lead me even close to a solution. My next approach was to take the 3 more complex pieces and place those at the path intersections and then work from there. This definitely improved the situation but did not get me all the way. I ended up resorting to Burrtools and just peeking at the position of those complex pieces. Once I had them placed properly, I was able to progress quite logically with the rest of the puzzle. If I had not been time constrained then I might have managed this without cheating. It is a very challenging, but logical, puzzle which should only need a little trial and error. It is very attractive when complete and looks great on display.”