A New Jersey software analyst won the US crossword championship over a six-time winner in a stunning upset

For most people, solving a crossword puzzle is a leisurely way to spend a lunch break or kill time on a long flight.

Howard Barkin isn't one of those people.

Last week, Barkin beat out nearly 600 other contestants to win the 39th annual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament in Stamford, Connecticut.

Directed by New York Times crossword editor Will Shortz, the competition pits the best crossword solvers in the country against one another in a gauntlet of seven puzzles over the course of the weekend. Competitors are judged on speed and accuracy.

In the championship round, Barkin dethroned six-time winner Dan Feyer in a stunning upset that delighted the audience:

"They're very vague. They're ambiguous. 'Boards' could be a verb, a noun, you don't know what it is," one of the commentators can be heard saying during the championship round.

Eventually, Barkin discerned the answer: "STEPS ON," as one would do an airplane. 

(An easier version of the puzzle designed for nonexperts cleared things up a bit. The clue for the same answer was "Squashes, as a bug.")

Perhaps the most difficult clue required solvers to come up with a six-letter word for "Muscovite, for example."

Barkin initially filled in the spaces with "SOVIET," knowing a Muscovite is what someone from Moscow is called.

However, the clue relied on an obscure double meaning - muscovite also happens to be the name of a flaky, metamorphic rock. Barkin quickly erased his mistake and wrote in the correct answer: "SCHIST."

"There's a certain mental flexibility that goes into it," Shortz told Business Insider. "Keeping your mind limber, and if your first answer doesn't work, try your second. And if that doesn't work out, try your third."

NOW WATCH: This video will change the way you watch the WWE

Please enable Javascript to watch this video