Chess.com’s Chief Chess Officer and co-founder, IM Danny Rensch, has released his first book, Dark Squares, a raw and deeply personal memoir about growing up in an abusive cult, how chess became his lifeline, and the journey that helped him build Chess.com.
Rensch has become one of the most well-known personalities in the chess world, as the public face of Chess.com and commentator of some of its major chess events. He co-founded the platform in 2005 and has played a key role in making it the world’s largest online chess platform with more than 200 million members.
In Dark Squares, which has its official release on September 16, Rensch reveals for the first time the story behind his persona. He grew up in the Church of Immortal Consciousness and spent much of his childhood in the small Arizona community of Tonto Village, where spiritual hierarchies, communal poverty, and strict control from church leaders defined daily life.
In an article in The Guardian this week, Rensch described his childhood as “dirt poor” and recalled the moment everything changed: Watching Searching for Bobby Fischer at the age of nine.
Searching for Bobby Fischer was to me what Star Wars was for kids a few years older. I didn’t simply love the movie. I was obsessed with it. Any kid who’s ever felt lost or misunderstood or stuck in the middle of nowhere has dreamed of picking up a lightsaber and discovering the Jedi master within. That was me in the summer of 1995, only with chess.
He started playing with his stepbrother and was introduced to the cult’s leader who saw his potential and started a chess team. He was eventually coached full-time by GM Igor Ivanov, the late Russian-born defector. “Chess is your purpose, Danny. Remember that,” he was told by the church at the time.
Dark Squares also goes through Rensch’s journey from triumphs such as becoming Arizona’s youngest national master in history and setbacks, such as a medical emergency that nearly ended his playing career, to later co-founding the world’s largest online chess platform.
Asked what was the most challenging part of writing the book, Rensch told Chess.com: it was to relive the lived experience: “When you’re in the middle of a difficult situation, you don’t always have time to process what’s happening. You’re just trying to survive. But writing the book forced me to review my childhood, my life, and all the personal relationships within it. In some ways, it felt even harder than the actual lived experience itself.”
When you’re in the middle of a difficult situation, you don’t always have time to process what’s happening. You’re just trying to survive.
—Danny Rensch
The chess commentator, international master, co-founder, and now book author, said the story is about resilience.
“I hope readers who are struggling with their own ‘dark squares’ learn that you are not defined by what happens to you. You are what you choose to become,” Rensch said. “This is a paraphrase of a Carl Jung quote, but I’ve added my own twist: Everything does happen for a reason, but you get to choose the reason.”
Ahead of its release, the book has received considerable attention, with the memoir topping Amazon’s New Chess Releases list (#5 in Chess books). “The fact that the book hit number one on Amazon is actually kind of hilarious because what everyone needs to know is that it’s not a chess book! But I am very thankful for the attention and interest,” Rensch said.
The fact that the book hit number one on Amazon is actually kind of hilarious because what everyone needs to know is that it’s not a chess book!
—Danny Rensch
Rensch has already gained significant attention, such as a personal piece by The New Yorker‘s Louisa Thomas:
A cult in Arizona convinced a boy that he was chess’s savior. Though he failed in his ambition, he helped ignite an explosion of interest in the game—and found himself transformed in the process. https://t.co/EQtl6LveE0
— The New Yorker (@NewYorker) September 16, 2025
Early reviews of the memoir look promising, with Jeannette Walls, author of The New York Times bestseller The Glass Castle, describing it as “a heartbreaking, hilarious, ultimately transcendent story of one man’s journey out of chaos and dysfunction.”
It also received a positive review by none other than GM Garry Kasparov: “Dark Squares is a powerful memoir and a testimony to why an ancient board game still has a place in our modern world. With a home life as troubled as the one Danny Rensch experienced, the complexities of the chessboard were more than a mere distraction. Chess is not life—even a world champion can admit that. But, as in Rensch’s case, it can certainly save one. With his work at Chess.com and with this beautiful book, he is well on the way to paying back his debt to our beloved game.”
Dark Squares: How Chess Saved My Life is available for sale now.
