Spent a few hours today in the MI chess room, and finished Chapter Two of Artur Yusupov's  BYC-3.  (Made the bare minimum passing score of 14 of a possible 29 points.)

A patron came in and sought a game. I agreed and asked if he minded that I would be writing the moves down (I'm recording my OTB games to study later). He introduced himself as Richard and was adamant that he would not allow that.

I asked him how long of a game he wanted - just trying to get a feel for how serious he wanted to play. His only response was that he would not play on a clock.

I am unclear as to why he was so against me recording our game, but as I realized tonight, my memory for games is coming back. Richard had the white pieces in our second game and liked to slam his pieces down as if every move were a decisive blow.

My moves here are not good; they are far too aggressive and rushed (8. ...g5 for example, met by 9. Qb5 is just losing) and I'm just pushing tactics here... the whole thing is just spaghetti thrown at a wall -  but Richard was having a hard time today at least. I tried to make the game a little friendlier, as he just seemed so unhappily intent on winning, and after 16. ...Nf5, when he made a follow up move like 17. e4 or 17. c3 (i forget which) I encouraged him to watch the fork at Nxg3! and he took back the move. He made a couple of more moves, again, still so serious, but then after 19. ...g4 , he made a couple of different moves with his Queen (after announcing so adamantly prior to our second game "TOUCH MOVE! - I forgot to say that last game!") only to place the Queen on e2, I reminded him of the fork and he resigned.
 

Some thoughts:

• On principle, if someone asks me for a game, but then declines to even allow the game to be recorded, I will probably reconsider and just spend my time studying instead. 
• "TOUCH MOVE!" as friendly pre-game banter is kind of an indicator of just how relaxed and enjoyable your opponent is going to be.
• It may not make sense to take games from folks who won't be put on a clock.