On Mon, 1 Dec 1997, Wayne Clifford wrote:

 Now that the WSC is over, I would be interested in knowing what some of
 the participants thought of the free-challenge rule.  Particularly, did
 you find that because the challenges naturally take some time to
 adjudicate, a player might make a silly challenge in order to gain
 "free" time to find that elusive outstanding play?

I'll go out slightly on a limb and say that the American players did not care for it. Although I'm sure I was the least OSW-booked of the American players (and therefore the beneficiary of the free challenge rule more than just about anyone) I found it a great detraction to the game. Gaminess interests aside, the free challenges belabored the rounds and killed the rhythm of the games. The Britainers who have played penalty challenges (eg Mark Nyman) prefer the penalty system, although there is non-unanimity regarding the appropriate penalty.

As far as "buying time," I believe there were a number of examples of this in my games. (None from me, in fact I went over a couple of times that I wouldn't have had I invoked this option.) I always prefaced my challenges with "sorry, it's not in ours." In one game, a player actually told the director that I was buying time when I challenged one of his words. Much to my surprise the word came off. After that I quit apologizing.

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