<pre>
Q: What is the most number of letters that can be fit into a three by three grid
of words, such that no letter is repeated in any row, column or diagonal?

A:
<pre>
 Games magazine ran a contest on this.  The winner had 62:

		proxying||   buckwash  ||   veldt
		------------------------------------
		stumbled||      j      ||  zincography
		------------------------------------
		whack   || providently ||   bumfs
</pre>

Here are some good tries:

<pre>
		backsword ||thumpingly ||   fez
		----------------------------------
		vexingly  ||      q    || throwbacks = 61
		----------------------------------
		thump     || beadworks ||   jingly

		backsword || thumpingly||  vex
		----------------------------------
		vexingly  ||      q    || throwbacks = 60
		----------------------------------
		thump     ||  bedrocks ||   flying

		subjack   ||downrightly||    fez
		----------------------------------
		novelwright||     q    ||  backups   = 59
		----------------------------------
		pyx       ||  subface  || downright

		krafts    || exhuming  || blowzy
		----------+-----------+-----------
		phylum    ||     j     || transfixed = 56
		----------+-----------+-----------
		vexing    || folkways  || chump

		klutz     || cymograph ||   fend
		----------+-----------+-----------
		exscind   ||     j     || kymograph = 54
		----------+-----------+-----------
		myograph  ||flunked    ||   vibs
</pre>
               *
Unless noted otherwise, all words occur in Webster's Third New International
Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, Springfield, MA, 1961.
</pre>
