Words are worth one point per letter, but a nine-letter word is worth double; that is, 18 points.
He scored 138 points with three nine-letter words, both of which had never been done before.
He then broke both of these records just two shows later with four nine-letter words and 146 points.
The contestant with the longest word is awarded one point for each letter in the word, but nine-letter words count double (thus scoring 18 points).
Each page bears a nine-letter word broken up into a stack of three-letter groups.
"I stopped short of memorizing the entire dictionary, and to be really good you have to get up to eight- and nine-letter words," he told me.
Seven-letter words were used in round one, eight-letter words in round two and nine-letter words in round three.
One point is scored per letter, except for nine-letter words, which score double points.
The contestants have thirty seconds to find the nine-letter word.
Puzzlers, take note: the biggest clue to doing crosswords in the 90's may be a nine-letter word that starts with a "C" - computers.
