Chess.com's Danny Rensch Is Coming to the Maryland State Championship

Chess.com co-founder, International Master, and three-time national scholastic chess champion IM Danny Rensch is coming to the Maryland State Championship! He will be giving a talk for students and parents on Saturday, April 18.

Rensch is a chess commentator, panelist, and author. His recently-released memoir “Dark Squares: How Chess Saved My Life” tells the story of his life as a scholastic chess player growing up in a cult and his journey towards escaping it. He’s been profiled in the New Yorker  and has been an annual guest at MIT’s Sloan Sports Analytics Conference for nearly a decade. His most recent talk at Sloan was in early March.

As a scholastic player, Rensch had an aspirational run: he became Elementary (K-6) national champion in 1998, then became Arizona’s youngest-ever National Master the following year. He went on to become Junior High national champion, then K-12 national champion, and earned his first IM norm (a high-level performance at a tournament; three are required to secure an IM title) just months after graduating high school.

Following his scholastic career, Rensch went on to earn his IM title and become a co-founder of Chess.com, where he continues to serve as Chief Chess Officer. He’s since made a name for himself as a chess commentator, working at events ranging from Chess.com’s PogChamps tournament to the World Chess Championships, as well as a tournament director. His tournaments regularly attract players like GMs Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana, Anish Giri, and Levon Aronian. In his memoir, you can find out why he’s so passionate about bringing chess to the masses (Chess.com has over 250 million registered users and over 20 million games played per day) and why he’s on a mission to revolutionize chess for professional players through bigger tournaments, new formats, and a more TV-like experience for fans. 

"Dark Squares"

Coach Luke, host of our Online Chess Academy program’s weekly Book Club, wrote a review of the book:

“‘Dark Squares’ is an amazing memoir, but it is not your typical chess book. The author, Danny Rensch, is a very strong chess player, but you will not improve your chess rating by reading his book. He is also an executive at Chess.com, but this is not a guidebook for building a Silicon Valley ‘unicorn’ from the ground up. Although he was one of the visionaries behind Chesskid.com, this is not a book about how a child chess prodigy was inspired to build a kid-centric website for chess. Instead, this book is a deeply personal account of abuse, exploitation, reconciliation, and recovery. 

Danny was raised in a cult known as the ‘Church of the Immortal Consciousness’ in central Arizona.  Much of the book is devoted to his direct childhood experiences within the cult. The material is difficult at times because of the cruelty and psychological abuse perpetrated by cult leaders, including family members. 

The subtitle ‘How Chess Saved My Life’ hints at an eventual escape from mistreatment. As a talented child prodigy, Danny was singled out for ‘special treatment’ within the cult but his eventual disentanglement from the cult was neither quick nor easy. The book does not shy away from documenting the emotionally and mentally scarring effects of being exploited in the name of the cult and in pursuit of the leaders’ ulterior motives. 

Throughout the book, Danny weaves in a second story about the infamous chess cheating scandal of 2022 involving a game between Magnus Carlsen and Hans Niemann. The themes of cheating, integrity and personal growth are masterfully connected between the story lines. After escaping from the cult and reconciling with some of his former abusers, Danny, in his role at Chess.com, must ‘take confessions’ from accused chess cheaters and decide just punishment for their crimes. The book concludes with a hopeful, redemptive tone as Danny’s approach to ‘chess justice’ focuses on grace and humility, while understanding that all of us can change for the better.”

Register for the Maryland State Championship tournament today to reserve a signed copy of “Dark Squares”. We hope to see you there!