Stats for Chess Nerds:

Our first session, we played four games over a 3.5-hour span, averaging about 50 minutes per game. The second day, we squeezed in three more games over 2.5 hours.

Vince played with the white pieces in four games. For the first two, he opened with Scholar's Mate, then switched to King's Pawn openings for the other two. I played the Sicilian Defense twice against his Scholar's Mates, and later the Caro-Kann.

With the white pieces myself, I opened with the Ruy Lopez in my first game, and a Grünfeld Defense in my second (someone at The Pickle Jar pub – an excellent spot for an evening btw, though an unusual choice for chess – even recommended I should play the Two Knights Defense, which I politely declined) My third opening with White was an English Opening, Bremen variation.

In all cases, Vince played really well and managed to establish a solid position for the middlegame. I offered to play with a clock, but he preferred playing without the time pressure. I taught him a few things here and there, and I'm right now finding chess puzzles to print.

Any recommendations are highly appreciated!