An exhibition of puzzles and brainteasers

Czechs like to play. At least that's what comes to mind if you realise that within two weeks, Prague has hosted two independent exhibitions of puzzles and brainteasers. One is taking place this weekend in Chodov in the south of Prague and the other fair was held last week in the gothic building Dum Panu z Kunstatu in the historic Old Town. The organiser was Jaroslav Flejberk, a puzzle enthusiast and owner of the largest collection of puzzles in Central Europe. He explains why solving puzzles is such a popular pastime in this country.

An exhibition of puzzles and brainteasers

Illustrative photo: archive of Radio Prague

"Because people have time to play and they do not buy toys, they usually buy puzzles and brainteasers to enjoy themselves and entertain others. For example, you come to the pub and bring an interesting puzzle to your table and tell everybody to solve it. They will start to solve the problem but probably will not succeed, so you show them and they will be very happy and tell you that you are a very clever man or woman. Since 1996, I have been noticing that all the people who do not want to play with toys, started to play with puzzles. Mostly wooden and wire puzzles are the favourite in the Czech Republic, plastic is not so popular."

Does this country have a long tradition of puzzles?

"Puzzles have been sold here since 1912. The first official store was here. Now we have three shops selling puzzles and for example London has only one shop. It means that the people want to play. This exhibition lasts four days and similar exhibitions in London and New York last only two days. We have about 5,000 visitors coming here and in the US, there are usually about 400 people coming. So the tradition is here and for example, one Czech puzzle was among three best puzzles in the world."

Are the designs originally Czech or are they copies of foreign designs?

"It is possible to say that about fifty percent are originally Czech, and the other fifty percent have foreign designers. The idea is copyrighted abroad and they buy the rights and produce it here. Or the puzzles are so old that nobody knows who produced them, who has the copyright."

You yourself own a large collection of puzzles, how many do you have?

"I have about 7,000 puzzles. About 3,000 of them are wire puzzles, another 3,000 are wooden and about 1,000 are made of plastic. It is the largest collection in Central Europe. My competitors are also in the Czech Republic. Mr Tvrdik has about 6,000 and Mr Svancera about 5,000 puzzles. But the people in Poland, Hungary and Germany have about 3,000 so it is also a sign of how Czechs enjoy puzzles."

And what would you say is the most famous Czech puzzle?

"The most famous Czech puzzle is the Hedgehog in a Cage. It is very famous because writer Jaroslav Foglar wrote a book and made this puzzle famous. So every boy in the Czech Republic wants to have the cage and hedgehog inside. And what is interesting is that [in the book] inside the hedgehog there are rules how to construct a flying bicycle. So for everybody is asking us about a flying bicycle inside - we produce puzzle in the form of a cage with a hedgehog, lion or a canary inside but no rules how to construct flying bicycle."

I must say I myself completely fell for those puzzles and I already spent much more money on them than I wanted to. Now I'm spending every free minute trying to disentangle two apparently inseparable wire objects or pull a ring over a bead which is twice as big. There is one small problem, what to do with the puzzle once you solve it? Well, as the wire or wooden puzzles make for very nice artefacts, they will look good on your mantelpiece - or you can give them to your friends for them to have something to do on those long autumn and winter evenings ahead.