A puzzle is a game, problem, or toy that tests a person's ingenuity or knowledge.

In a puzzle, one is required to

put pieces together in a logical way, in order to arrive at the correct solution of the puzzle.

Examples:

Chess Board

Jigsaw Puzzles

Rubik's Cube

Soma Cube

Meta Puzzles

Sangaku

Sliding Puzzles

Jigsaw Puzzles

Sokoban

Tangrams

Word puzzles including; anagrams, ciphers, crossword puzzles, Hangman (game), and word search
puzzles

Tabletop and digital word puzzles include; Bananagrams, Boggle, Bonza, Dabble, Letterpress,
Perquackey, Puzzlage, Quiddler, Ruzzle, Scrabble, Upwords, WordSpot, and Words with Friends

1. Puzzles Educate

Education involves enhancing skills such as developing research skills, improving spelling and language
skills, improving reasoning ability, developing the power of concentration and increasing creative
abilities. According to puzzle experts at GlobalPuzzle.net, a person solving a puzzle reasons in a logical
way, arranges the problem in the mind, recognizes patterns and deduces solutions to reach a desired
solution. Therefore word games, crossword games, letter games, jigsaw, etc. are all puzzle games that not
only serve the purpose of deriving fun, but also educate both adults and children.

2. Puzzles Improve IQ
Research states that solving puzzles helps raise the IQ (intelligence quotient) level of the player. Puzzles
force the solver to think and reason. They force the player to use their general knowledge, memory,
spatial imagery, logic and problem solving skills. The intellect sharpens by learning how to overcome
challenges.

3. Puzzles Improve Cognitive Ability

In children, puzzles enhance their ability to visualize and understand the whole-part relationship. Certain
subject areas can also be enhanced through the use of these games such as learning and recognizing the
alphabets, colours, shapes, numbers and various categories that objects may belong to.

In adults, the advanced level of puzzles such as mathematical puzzles, Sudoku, Scrabble, etc. enhance
their language skills. Crosswords and word games increase the vocabulary, spelling and research skills.

4. Puzzles Improve Concentration

Concentration is required to solve a brainteaser. Therefore puzzles can help increase the attention span in
both adults and children. By varying the difficulty level of the challenge, the level of required
concentration can be controlled. Once an individual is comfortable with a level, the difficulty can be
increased to push the brain to concentrate harder.

5. Puzzles Improve Problem Solving Skills

Since, the goal of solving any puzzle is to find a solution to a problem, puzzles help improve the critical
thinking ability of an individual. The child or adult learns patience, determination and organization i.e.,
how to break big and complex problems into smaller and easily solvable portions. A sense of
accomplishment is achieved when an individual solves a puzzle. This also helps boost the confidence level
of a child or adult in his/her ability to solving problems or taking up challenges.

6. Puzzles Improve Social Skills

Puzzles that involve partners help learn how to coordinate, share, lead and follow. Furthermore, when
solving a challenging problem, a child or adult learns how to deal with the frustration that keeps building
up if the puzzle is difficult to crack.