Stonington man is Maine’s Number 1 crossword puzzler

Local librarian closes in on 3,000 days in a row completing the NYT crossword

By Steele Hays

That friendly, unassuming man checking out books for patrons at the Stonington Public Library has a secret. Besides being the library director, he’s a nationally-ranked crossword puzzle champion, and Number 1 in the state of Maine.  

Chris Ross is Maine’s top puzzle solver. Photo by Steele Hays.

Chris Ross, Stonington’s library director since 2021, is obsessed with puzzles. As of Sept. 16, he has completed the New York Times daily crossword puzzle for 2,852 days in a row.  He knows because the crossword app on his phone keeps track.

He also competes each year in the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (ACPT) in Connecticut, finishing in the top 100 the last two years out of just under 800 solo contestants. 

“I enjoy the tension, I enjoy the challenge,” Ross said. “It’s humbling. It’s also awe-inspiring to see people who are so much better than I am. And I’ve gotten so much better over time.” 

Ross says his goal is to “stay Number 1 in the state of Maine and make it into the top 10 percent nationally.”  

Ross began doing puzzles as a kid growing up in New Hampshire.  He studied Mandarin Chinese in college at Oberlin and then spent seven years living and working in China. While there, he became more involved in puzzles.

At the same time, he met friends in China who were moving to Isle au Haut, and who invited him to come live on the island six miles off Stonington. And so he did, moving from Beijing with a population of 21 million to Isle au Haut, population 92.

He spent three years living full-time on the island, doing odd jobs, carpentry and painting and working in the island’s library. That last job came easily since Ross has a master’s degree in library science.  

“When the job as director of the Stonington Library came up, it was perfect,” Ross said. 

Ross enjoys sharing his knowledge, leading periodic crossword puzzle workshops and a monthly “group solve” at the library, which attracts enthusiasts from ages 11 to 80.  

“I never thought of myself as an evangelist for crossword puzzles, but I like it when people get excited about it,” he said.  

A few big cities – New York, Boston and San Francisco – tend to be crossword puzzle hotbeds, Ross said, adding that Maine is a great environment for crossword puzzlers as well with its long winters and high levels of literacy and library use.  A Boston-area group called “Boswords” sponsors online crossword tournaments open to anyone, for those who want to try their hand, Ross suggests.  He advises that “the key to becoming a better solver is not knowing lots of trivia, but in training your mind to stay flexible.” 

The national crossword puzzle champion is a 25-year-old Harvard graduate named Paulo Pasco, who has won the ACPT two years in a row, and who now makes his living creating puzzles.  

“One thing that crosswords help with is a feeling of turning chaos into some kind of order,” Pasco said in an interview for a Harvard alumni spotlight. “Puzzles provide that hit of taking a lot of information, synthesizing it into an orderly way, and then having something to show for it when you’re done like a finished grid. It’s a job, it’s a task, and once it’s done, you know.”