Mongolian Puzzles

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Mongolian Interlocking Puzzles

Jerry Slocum and Frans de Vreugd
Peter, an antique dealer who spends most of his time searching for rare
antiques in places that most of us collectors would consider too remote or too
dangerous, visited Jerry during August 2000. He enthusiastically described an
amazing Puzzle Museum that he had just found in a most unlikely place, Ulaan-
Baatar, Outer Mongolia. “There are more than 2,000 puzzles; you must go there”,
he said. He provided the business card of the Director, Mr. Zandraa Tumen-Ulzii,
drew a map of the location of the museum, and mentioned that Monica, the
daughter of the Director, was living in Los Angeles!
Ulaan-Baatar, the capital of Outer Mongolia, is located between northern
China and Russia’s Siberia. The country is twice the size of Texas and the average
altitude is about 5,000 feet. It has very cold winters and even during the summer it
is frequently quite cool. Historically Mongolia has been a nomadic society and
even today many people live in easily moved, round, felt-covered Gers (tents)
while tending herds of horses, sheep, yaks, goats and camels. There is little
agriculture and limited industry in the country. With the help of Monica and her
brother Itgel, a trip to Mongolia was arranged. Jerry invited puzzle friends Dick
Hess and Frans de Vreugd to accompany him on the trip. Our adventure in
Mongolia is described in the reference.
Mr. Tumen-Ulzii, puzzle inventor, artist and craftsman

Mr. Tumen-Ulzii, shown in Figure 1, was born in 1944 in Aguit, Western
Mongolia, as part of a family of eleven children. His parents were herdsmen. He
is married and has two sons and two daughters. He and all of his children are
University graduates. Mr. Tumen-Ulzii became
interested in puzzles at a very young age when
he was given a six-piece burr puzzle by his
Father with one of the pieces missing. He soon
figured out the design of the missing piece,
carved a replacement and solved the puzzle. He
was hooked on puzzles!
Since 1955 Mr. Tumen Ulzii has
invented, patented and crafted more than 2445
different interlocking mechanical puzzles. He
opened his International Intellectual and Puzzle
Museum in Ulaan Baatar in 1990 in order to
share his puzzles and chess sets with other
Figure 1. Mr. Tumen-Ulzii Mongolians and visitors from all over the World.
The work of Mr. Tumen-Ulzii can best be
described as a delicate combination of intricate puzzle design, art and very
skillfull craftsmanship. He has used these talents to design and fabricate a
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completely new class of interlocking puzzles, unsurpassed in its kind. Mr. Tumen-
Ulzii has designed puzzles that range from simple (but beautifully decorated) ones
to extremely complicated interlocking structures using hundreds of pieces. Many
different techniques are used, including dovetails, rotational and tilted moves.
He has been recognized for his many accomplishments. He was awarded
a prize as the “Best inventor of Mongolia” in 1994 by the Mongolian Government.
And in 1998, the President of Mongolia awarded him Mongolia’s highest honor, a
gold medal and the title of “Meritorious Person of Culture of Mongolia” “for his
contribution to developing the minds and thinking skills of children and youth”.
Puzzle Art and jewelry

In addition to designing and making puzzles, he has painted several
pictures which feature puzzles with symbolic meaning. The picture on the left in
Figure 2 shows a baby’s pacifier in the shape of a puzzle, meaning that you should
not only nourish your young children with food, but also feed them intellectually.
Mr. Tumen-Ulzii has also
designed and made a
unique four-band puzzle
ring, shown in Figure 3.
The design, in Mongolian,
signifies 10,0000 puzzles.
Figure 2. Puzzle Art by Tumen-Ulzii Figure 3. Puzzle Ring
Six-piece Burrs
Although most of the six-piece
burrs Mr. Tumen-Ulzii has designed are
relatively simple as puzzles, others
require as many as seven moves to
remove the first piece and seventeen
moves to disassemble the six pieces
completely. All of them are extremely
decorative. He came up with several
dozen different ways to decorate the
pieces. The ends of the pieces of some
of the puzzles have an unusual shape,
Figure 4. Six Piece Burr variations shown in Figure 4. Other puzzles are
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Figure 5. Disney characters and Zodiac figures decorate the six-piece burrs.
miniature sculptures with intricate hand carved decorations. Figure 5 shows a six
piece burr with the ends of the pieces carved and decorated as Donald Duck and
Mickey Mouse on the left and the twelve traditional Chinese Zodiac animals
carved and painted on the pieces of the burr on the right.
More complex burrs

Mr. Tumen-Ulzii moved up to a higher level of complexity with the
twelve and twenty-seven piece burrs shown in Figure 6. And each piece in the
Figure 6. Decorated twelve and twenty-seven piece burrs

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Figure 7. Eighteen-piece Board Burr and one of it’s pieces Figure 8. Three
hundred seventy-
five piece puzzle.
eighteen piece Board Burr shown in Figure 7, is different and quite complex,
making this one of the most difficult puzzles we found in the Museum. The
orientation of the pieces is utterly confusing, not just the alternating ends, but also
the different configurations of pieces in X-, Y- and Z-direction (2x3 vs. 1x6).
Many of his interlocking puzzles contain many more pieces. The puzzle shown in
Figure 8 contains 375 pieces. Another puzzle he designed called, “Cosmic Eden”
uses 673 wooden pieces.
Figural and decorative interlocking puzzles

Several of his more complicated puzzles, such as those shown in Figure
9, are decorated by beautifully carved animal shapes. From the outside it is often
unclear how many pieces the puzzle has, and as with previous puzzles, the
decorations frequently have a traditional symbolic meaning. Figure 10 shows four
out of a complete set of twelve animals representing the signs of the Zodiac. The
internal structure and mechanisms to disassemble and reassemble the puzzles are
all different and vary in difficulty.
Shown in Figure 11 is one of his best puzzle designs. It is a turtle-shaped
interlocking puzzle, made from eleven pounds of silver! This turtle is also the
symbol of the city of Ulaan Baatar. It requires nine complex moves to remove the
first piece and thirty-three moves to completely disassemble it. The person who
can take it apart and reassemble the puzzle in ten minutes will be awarded
$100,000. by Mr. Tumen-Ulzii. We tried, but could not even get the first piece out
in ten minutes. Some of the movements required are very unusual. We doubt that
even an experienced solver can solve the puzzle in the given time.
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Figure 9. Carved and decorated wooden Cat and Mouse Puzzle and Turtle Puzzle
Figure 10. Zodiac figural puzzles.
Interlocking buildings
Mr. Tumen-Ulzii has also designed several interesting interlocking
puzzles in the shape of famous buildings. Shown in Figure 12 are the fairly simple
seven-piece Statue of Liberty and a puzzle in the shape of a traditional Mongolian
home Ger (tent). Other impressive puzzle structures in the Museum include the
Eiffel tower as well as The Chinggis Khaan Hotel and the statue of Sükhbaatar in
Ulaan Baatar (both very difficult).
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Puzzle Chess sets

One of Mr. Tumen-Ulzii’s
main passions is playing chess. He has
designed more than twenty different
puzzle chess sets. In most of these,
each of the pieces (seven different
white and seven different black) are
distinctly different puzzles, ranging
from easy (pawns) to difficult
(king/queen). Not just the chess pieces
are puzzles, all the joints in the
accompanying table are also puzzles.
There is a great diversity in size, shape
and material. For example the smallest
chess set is about 20 x 20 cm, and the
pieces are tiny. Another chess set that
was only finished the day before we
arrived uses animal figures for all of
the pieces, which become decorative
as well as intriguing puzzles. The
chess table, shaped like a big turtle, is
shown in Figure 13. The pawn, the
simplest puzzle, uses a 180 degree
rotation as first move. His most
precious chess set, shown in Figure
Figure 11. Silver Turtle Puzzle 14, uses gold for the black chess
pieces and silver for the white pieces.
Figure 12. Statue of Liberty and Mongolian Ger puzzles

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The intricate design of the six pieces of the Chess

King indicates the difficulty of disassembling and
assembling the puzzle. Eight moves are needed to remove
the first piece and eighteen moves to disassemble it
completely. The Chessboard includes 108 jewels and
precious stones. In May 2002, as part of the 840th
anniversary celebration of Chinggis Khaan, he made the
World’s largest Mongolian Chess set with pieces two feet
high and a chessboard 25 feet square.
Figure 13. Turtle chess set
Figure 14. Gold and Silver Chess Set with six pieces of the King on the right
Conclusion
The Mongolian Puzzle Museum and Mr. Tumen-Ulzii are amazing. The
richness and diversity of interlocking puzzles in the Museum is unmatched
anywhere in the world. Mr. Tumen-Ulzii has combined his inventiveness and
technical design skills with his unique talent as an accomplished artist and
sculptor for the design and fabrication of thousands of complex interlocking
puzzles. His Museum will move to larger and better facility in 2003 and we plan
to visit his new Museum and bring many other puzzle enthusiasts with us.
This article was included in “Tribute to a MatheMAGIcian” edited by B. Cipra,

E. Demaine, M. Demaine & T. Rodgers and published by AK Peters Ltd. in
2005.
Reference
Frans de Vreugd. Puzzle Adventures in Mongolia. Cubism for Fun 57, Dutch
Cubists Club (NKC), March 2002.

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1

Mongolian Interlocking Puzzles

Mr. Tumen-Ulzii, puzzle inventor, artist and craftsman

Puzzle Art and jewelry

Figure 2. Puzzle Art by Tumen-Ulzii Figure 3. Puzzle Ring

More complex burrs

Figure 6. Decorated twelve and twenty-seven piece burrs

Figural and decorative interlocking puzzles

Figure 10. Zodiac figural puzzles.

Puzzle Chess sets

Figure 12. Statue of Liberty and Mongolian Ger puzzles

The intricate design of the six pieces of the Chess

Figure 13. Turtle chess set

This article was included in “Tribute to a MatheMAGIcian” edited by B. Cipra,

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