How Chess Saved Danny Rensch’s Life: From Cult Roots to Chess.com’s Success

The James Altucher Show

James Altucher

Society & Culture, Talk Radio, Writer, Philosophy, Comedy, Chess, How To, Entrepreneurship, Jay, James, The James Altucher Show, Altucher, Author, Jay Yow, Education, Jay The Engineer, Business, James Altucher

4.6 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 28 June 2025

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Notes from James:

I had no idea this conversation would go where it did. I thought we’d talk chess. Instead, we talked about life, trauma, manipulation, redemption… and how one of the world’s most popular games can be both a tormentor and a savior.

Episode Description:

In this raw and powerful episode, I sat down with Danny Rensch—International Master, Chief Chess Officer of Chess.com, and author of the upcoming memoir Dark Squares—to uncover a story that’s anything but a typical chess tale. Raised in a spiritual cult obsessed with chess, Danny’s path to mastery involved trauma, isolation, and resilience. We go deep into the psychological aftermath of cult life, the beauty and torment of the game that saved him, and how he helped turn Chess.com into a global phenomenon with over 200 million users.

This isn’t just an episode about chess. It’s about survival, identity, and how to turn pain into purpose.

What You’ll Learn:

How Danny’s obsession with chess began inside a controlling cult
The complicated relationship between talent, trauma, and identity
How being taken from his family at age 12 shaped his worldview
How Chess.com exploded from 100k subscribers to millions after The Queen’s Gambit
Why cheating in chess is a growing threat—and how they’re fighting it
What the Hans Niemann scandal revealed about the future of the game
How to build resilience and purpose from even the darkest beginnings

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction: A Unique Upbringing and Chess Obsession

00:43 The James Altucher Show: Welcoming Danny Wrench

00:58 Danny Wrench's Journey: From Chess Prodigy to Business Success

03:19 The Dark Side of Chess: Cult Life and Personal Struggles

12:38 Chess.com: Growth and Success

14:34 The Impact of COVID-19 and The Queen's Gambit

20:30 Cheating Scandals and Controversies in Chess

26:26 Future of Chess: Technology and Cheating

31:14 Conclusion: Living the Dream

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Transcript

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0:00.0	I was raised in a spiritual collective that had a cult leader who was obsessed with chess.
0:05.4	And when I was nine years old, I learned how to play and accidentally got very, very good at the game.
0:11.3	While you wish there was someone around to kind of like, you know, smack you in the face and say like, what, what is going on here?
0:16.6	One of the things that happens to abuse people is very often abused children.
0:20.4	They don't stop loving their abuser, they stop loving themselves.
0:23.4	While chess itself was tormentor and that getting good at this game actually ended up having me lose my family in many ways and go through a number of different very real tragedies,
0:34.5	I would say that the game of chess both was tour mentor and mentor and in many ways
0:38.8	destroyed some parts of my life and then saved my life in the end because of that.
0:49.5	This isn't your average business podcast and he's not your average host.
0:54.7	This is the James Altitcher Show.
1:03.2	There are a lot of strange, very strange, stories in the chess world.
1:09.8	I mean, everyone remembers kind of the dramas around Bobby Fisher
1:13.3	and even some of the dramas more recently with Magnus Carlson, but I have never heard a story as
1:20.0	unusual and as interesting as the story that brought Danny Wrench into chess. Danny in his career is one of the first people at
1:29.1	and he helps run chess.com,
1:30.9	which has like over 100 million users.
1:32.9	It's the biggest chess company ever.
1:35.1	So we talk about that a little bit,
1:36.5	which is very interesting.
1:37.7	But the story of how Danny went from being a kid who played chess
1:41.3	to one of the strongest young chess players in the country
1:44.7	and why the people around him were motivated for him to do that
	...

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