Valentine Puzzle

VALENTINE PUZZLE

Roland Koch from Switzerland (owner of Knoxpuzzles) entered the IPP competition 2001 with 3 puzzles. One of these is called the VALENTINE PUZZLE which is up for review today. It is still available from Geduldspiele.ch for 85 CHF (which is about 70 Euros). I was lucky enough to get my copy from puzzle friend Bernhard Schweitzer (who else) for a great bargain.

The VALENTINE PUZZLE is a packing puzzle and comes with a hexagonal frame, 11 (partially) odd-shaped pieces and 41 challenges (see pictures 1 + 2). Your goal is of course to lay the patterns given on the challenge sheet. The pieces are different in colour on back and front and therefore give a nice contrast when playing with this puzzle. It took me almost two weeks to fulfil all the challenges. Most of them taking around 5 to 15 minutes but there are also a few that took me 45 minutes to an hour. The strange thing is that you can almost fill the entire tray just to realize that the last piece is not fitting........From a difficulty point of view I would rate it a 6 out of 10 (3 to 5 challenges may be a 7 out of 10).

The VALENTINE PUZZLE was definitely worth the money I spent (though 70 Euros is ..... much) because it kept me occupied for 2 weeks and I had a lot of fun (and anger). From my perspective it is recommendable for kids and those people who are getting to start with puzzling.