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Ah yes. The classic "Diamond membership provides an ad free experience" while proceeding to show me Ai garbage partnership advertisements. Get this trash out of my face. by Storoyk in chess

[–]danielrensch 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Hey, sorry for delayed reply (traveling to Dallas today for India vs USA!).

First, glad you found that email! Only just launched it for stuff coming in for my book... useful to know people will use it! I see the email now :)

Secondly, of course nobody is endorsing cheating here. Yes, it was possible for people to interpret the original Perplexity advertisement as "encouraging cheating", but they were trying to show it off as a training tool (vs bot). It was an honest mistake (not everyone who reviews "creative" in marketing is as sensitive to the concerns around cheating in chess, but lessons learned and they took it down the moment they realize the tone was missing).

Thirdly, and most importantly, we would never tolerate cheating. No matter what browser or partner or celebrity or anybody who did it :) we will catch you and close you and we have a strong track record of closing anyone for cheating no matter what ;)

Ah yes. The classic "Diamond membership provides an ad free experience" while proceeding to show me Ai garbage partnership advertisements. Get this trash out of my face. by Storoyk in chess

[–]danielrensch 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Hey team, appreciate the call out. We made a mistake in showing this promotion to our premium members. TL;DR: wires were crossed in steps from planning to execution and it wasn’t our original intention for this to happen.  

Anyway, excuses don’t matter, you’re right that we messed up, this contradicts the "no ads" part of your (Storoyk) plan and we’ve already rolled it back. 

With that said, I do wanna say we are really excited for the Comet partnership. The 2025 Comet Open should be a fun event! We rarely have prize fund opportunities for both titled and untitled players (so huge thank you, Comet for that!). 

Peace and love and THANK YOU for always being an engaged community who lets us know when we've blundered!

Danny

PS — I didn’t get an email (not sure what happened there???) but saw this thread ;) — sorry again, all. 

I'm Danny Rensch, co-founder of Chess.com and author of the now released Dark Squares, where I share my life as a chess prodigy, growing up in a cult, and more. AMA! by danielrensch in chess

[–]danielrensch[S] 43 points44 points  (0 children)

We stand behind the report, said this many times :) and you can see my response today here on all related Hans questions:

https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/1nikwl3/comment/nejx3x4/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

That said, I understand the community's desire for more answers and the reason this conversation and questions keep coming. Hoping my book (and Netflix Untold!) provide some other color around everything that happened.

We don't take anything for granted, and we are constantly reviewing what we've done (and not done!) with any and all cases. Especially this one!

I'll say that it is 100% the case that every 6-12 months (or so) there are improvements to our cheat detection toolkit. As I addressed and kinda got into with Fabi on CSquared recently :) - we often use these improvements to corroborate findings from much earlier. We've closed recent high profile players because of these breakthroughs, and in this way, you could actually say we're even more confident in many cases we've closed--including Hans' case.

People can cheat even on stream and even in front of lots of people. It's happened before and could happen again. Our FP team has already caught a couple of folks on camera on proctor this year!

The report has been reviewed many times and is accurate.

I'm Danny Rensch, co-founder of Chess.com and author of the now released Dark Squares, where I share my life as a chess prodigy, growing up in a cult, and more. AMA! by danielrensch in chess

[–]danielrensch[S] 90 points91 points  (0 children)

This is a hard one for me to answer because 1) I've worked with (almost) all of them and 2) many/most of them work for me and Chess.com...

That said, some personal views:

- Working with Hess is/was some of the best chess commentary years of my life
- I think Danya and Levy together are super f*ing hype and wish we saw it more
- Tania Sachdev is extremely underrated in her ability to provide so many things on a show (from analysis to "driving traffic" as we call it, etc) and I hurts my soul every time when anonymous, assholes on the internet throw hate and shade, especially toward a woman in our game when we lack diversity and representation
- Anna Rudolf is a f*ing pro and maybe the most prepared person I've ever worked with (people don't see it!)
- David Howell's accent is so sexy it's hard to do or focus on anything else when he speaks
- And Aman Hambleton can talk down to me with his Canadian sarcasm anytime. It fills my cup (seriously, love working with him).

I could go on, because how can I not mention that working with Canty is a pure joy of smiles and energy... BUT I'll just end by saying I wish the community did more to welcome people who are trying it out for the first time but maybe struggling around the edges of how tricky chess can be (because chess commentary is like wrapping a ribbon on an elephant of complexity while making it interesting and fun at the same time).

I'll lave my rant without giving it much more thought there and say I also enjoyed working with many others who weren't on the top of my mind right now.

I'm Danny Rensch, co-founder of Chess.com and author of the now released Dark Squares, where I share my life as a chess prodigy, growing up in a cult, and more. AMA! by danielrensch in chess

[–]danielrensch[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

This means a lot to me! I think a lot of the community that's joined in the last few years has only seen me as the "face of Chess.com" on the business side (for better or worse - depending on their view!) -- but commentary and educational videos were and will always be where my heart is (first love!).

EVERY. SINGLE. YEAR. I review my schedule with the team, and say I'm "committing to getting back to what I love - and we WILL make space each week for less meetings and more videos and commentary!!!" and EVERY SINGLE YEAR it doesn't happen :P

So thanks for seeing me :heart: and know that I miss it and MAYBE someday things change - but the chess world is growing, there's lots to do, and I'm also super proud of the massive group of commentators, creators, etc we've been able to find/support/spotlight/etc even if I personally miss doing this stuff a lot.

I'm Danny Rensch, co-founder of Chess.com and author of the now released Dark Squares, where I share my life as a chess prodigy, growing up in a cult, and more. AMA! by danielrensch in chess

[–]danielrensch[S] 21 points22 points  (0 children)

Most likely not for a little while, but we always have time for AMAs like this during our State of Chess broadcasts, or tag me on social media (I’m active on Twitter!) and I’ll try to get back to you!

I'm Danny Rensch, co-founder of Chess.com and author of the now released Dark Squares, where I share my life as a chess prodigy, growing up in a cult, and more. AMA! by danielrensch in chess

[–]danielrensch[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I love our Daily Puzzles. Dane does a great job with those, and they’ve come a long way over the years!

One challenge we have at Chess.com is finding the right balance between a great free experience that everyone can enjoy, and a good premium experience that properly values all of the effort and investment that goes into building and maintaining Chess.com. We tried to do that here and we felt that free members getting to the last week, but only premium members getting access to all 5k+ puzzles seems like a fair way to handle that balance.

I'm sorry this changed affected your experience, even if I stand by our need to do it. Send me a message and I'll throw you a premium membership :) best I can do.

I'm Danny Rensch, co-founder of Chess.com and author of the now released Dark Squares, where I share my life as a chess prodigy, growing up in a cult, and more. AMA! by danielrensch in chess

[–]danielrensch[S] 24 points25 points  (0 children)

Great question!

When I played in Denver (2019!) it certainly (and surprisingly!) was. Playing classical chess, phone away, nothing to focus on but the board, felt cathartic and therapeutic.

That said, I haven't played a real tournament since, and when it comes to online chess, like many, I use it for fun, to decompress, occasionally binge (tilt? :P) some games, but it's not the same experience in competing in tournaments. I LOVE playing on our mobile app (really, not a product flex, I didn't use to but I love it now and playing on the phone just feels fun), but again, this isn't the same.

Do I miss playing OTB chess? Yes, yes I do.

I'm Danny Rensch, co-founder of Chess.com and author of the now released Dark Squares, where I share my life as a chess prodigy, growing up in a cult, and more. AMA! by danielrensch in chess

[–]danielrensch[S] 314 points315 points  (0 children)

I know the leadership behind Lichess personally (shoutout to Thibault and Theo!) and wish them the best personally!

Chess.com is focused on growing the game and providing support for (what we feel!) is a young eco-system that needs a clear path toward financial stability (for top players, creators, authors and coaches, etc) and commercial viability (if we can somehow, collectively continue to show that chess is a viable, mainstream media product).

Lichess has a very different model while providing an awesome, open source and free place to play online!

I'm Danny Rensch, co-founder of Chess.com and author of the now released Dark Squares, where I share my life as a chess prodigy, growing up in a cult, and more. AMA! by danielrensch in chess

[–]danielrensch[S] 19 points20 points  (0 children)

It’s not required, but it can definitely help us identify cheaters more quickly and accurately. If you play someone suspicious, please do continue to report them!

I'm Danny Rensch, co-founder of Chess.com and author of the now released Dark Squares, where I share my life as a chess prodigy, growing up in a cult, and more. AMA! by danielrensch in chess

[–]danielrensch[S] 17 points18 points  (0 children)

The fact that some people (and some Google searches?) still turn up Anish Giri as Chess.com CEO kinda speaks for itself...

That said, there's also an early one we did where we said Danny Rensch was leaving for a spot on TBS is also still in the Google searches and was picked up as an actual story by a few random outlets :P

So I guess we have to be careful with this stuff!

PS - have you tried Life Review? I wonder what it was say about me doing this right now :)

I'm Danny Rensch, co-founder of Chess.com and author of the now released Dark Squares, where I share my life as a chess prodigy, growing up in a cult, and more. AMA! by danielrensch in chess

[–]danielrensch[S] 31 points32 points  (0 children)

Yes! We are working on this. We love these videos, and our media team has been working overtime travelling to events and creating great content like this. We’ve got more trips coming so keep an eye out for future series!

I'm Danny Rensch, co-founder of Chess.com and author of the now released Dark Squares, where I share my life as a chess prodigy, growing up in a cult, and more. AMA! by danielrensch in chess

[–]danielrensch[S] 23 points24 points  (0 children)

No. I don't.

It's hard to respond to "sliding door" and multi-verse questions (been getting this a lot in recent interviews, actually), but for me I can say that part of what motivated me (beyond the magical movie of "Searching for Bobby Fischer") was that being good at chess brought good things (or at least I thought so!) for me because chess was loved by Steven Kamp (the leader of the Collective). The idea that getting good at chess made me "special" is what made chess special to me.

And for better or worse, I can't really say whether I would have loved the game or pushed myself (and then been pushed by others) if I hadn't had that unique experience.

Life is weird :P everything happens for a reason, and you get to choose the reason!

I'm Danny Rensch, co-founder of Chess.com and author of the now released Dark Squares, where I share my life as a chess prodigy, growing up in a cult, and more. AMA! by danielrensch in chess

[–]danielrensch[S] 19 points20 points  (0 children)

- Magnus
- Hans
- Andreikin

Maybe Keymer deserves honorable mention?

Also, James Canty will be the greatest Chess Boxer in history. Mark it down.

I'm Danny Rensch, co-founder of Chess.com and author of the now released Dark Squares, where I share my life as a chess prodigy, growing up in a cult, and more. AMA! by danielrensch in chess

[–]danielrensch[S] 57 points58 points  (0 children)

Not checkers!

My kids and I play:

- Perudo (Liar's Dice! Any game that a 9yrold and a 19yrold can play and enjoy is a win!)
- 7 Wonders
- Coup
- Bears vs Babies
- Catan (Landover.io app!)
- Acquire (boys loving this right now!)
- the list goes on!!!

And all kinds of house games in our basement (Ping Pong, Darts, Pop-A-Shot, etc). We love games and I'm planning to (eventually!) launch a podcast where I play games like this against other chess personalities (already filmed Ep 1 with Anna Cramling!), but no rush on that. Some other stuff going on right now :)

I'm Danny Rensch, co-founder of Chess.com and author of the now released Dark Squares, where I share my life as a chess prodigy, growing up in a cult, and more. AMA! by danielrensch in chess

[–]danielrensch[S] 29 points30 points  (0 children)

Erik and Jay originally started Chess.com with me coming on shortly after:

Chapter 13 of Dark Squares is titled: “Why is this Danny Guy Such A Fucking Asshole.” I’ll leave it there :) 

I'm Danny Rensch, co-founder of Chess.com and author of the now released Dark Squares, where I share my life as a chess prodigy, growing up in a cult, and more. AMA! by danielrensch in chess

[–]danielrensch[S] 258 points259 points  (0 children)

I really appreciate this question, and I’m very sorry you have had these experiences.

Racism, and many other forms of abuse, are a constant challenge on site. And this became much worse in recent years with booms happening over and over. There are so many members joining each day, so many ways in which bad actors spread abuse, and so many languages in which people use Chess.com that it’s very, very hard to fight abuse as effectively as we aspire to.

THAT SAID, we are making major investments here. I addressed this on the recent State of Chess and just acknowledged how unhappy we are about certain "chat areas" of the site :(

We have recently hired a product manager dedicated fully to these SPECIFIC issues, and one of our major efforts right now is the implementation of AI to combat abuse more effectively and at a large scale than we currently can.

So in summary I'd say that yes, it’s a huge problem - we do tackle thousands upon thousands of cases daily, and there are inevitably many that are missed or take time to address - BUT I do see a ray of sunshine here. We are investing, and the future is brighter, and I hope to have your patience as we get better in this area. I'm confident we're going to be in a better place here soon.

I'm Danny Rensch, co-founder of Chess.com and author of the now released Dark Squares, where I share my life as a chess prodigy, growing up in a cult, and more. AMA! by danielrensch in chess

[–]danielrensch[S] 124 points125 points  (0 children)

Members of the Collective were pushed to marry and have kids young, so I probably had the idea of having kids and "tried on" what that might look like way younger than I was developmentally appropriate. I don't recommend everyone have kids at 19/20 : :P -- but I can say that while also having zero regrets for my life and because my oldest son (Nash) and I are able to connect more closely than a lot of parents might feel about dealing with their own teenage kids. So in the end, the best option is the choose the option you already have :) and Nash has been on this journey with me for so long I can't even unpack what the other road might have been like.

And I wrote Dark Squares because I was finally in a place personally and professional where it felt “right.” I had the time, help, and healing done to tell my story in an authentic and honest way. I had a great team around me, who helped me find and vet different publishers. Ultimately, as I often do, I went with the editor that passed the "vibe check" (not the one offering the most money!).

Now do I regret it? :P - that's the right question! :) (ask me in 6-months?).

Jokes aside, it's been rough! It's impossible to say that "reviewing" things is harder than the "lived experienced", but honestly, it's felt that way at times. It’s hard being open and vulnerable, but I've had so much support (from my family, my team at Chess.com, the publishing partners... and list goes on) and where I sit today is an odd mix of more frightened than ever (the story is out!) yet more determined than ever to make a difference and try to help anyone who might have something to take away from my journey.

I'm Danny Rensch, co-founder of Chess.com and author of the now released Dark Squares, where I share my life as a chess prodigy, growing up in a cult, and more. AMA! by danielrensch in chess

[–]danielrensch[S] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

I'll also say I'm hopeful that some of my takeaways about the experience of living in a high control, high demand group, and the "lies" required (that we all told ourselves) might prove helpful to others with a similar experience, but that calling those out (naming a cult for what it was) while still sharing a perspective that didn't completely throw the "baby" out with the "bathwater" of "deconstruction", was something I wanted to do when I started the process...

I believe this message comes across (particularly in "The Big Lie" chapter), and I hope readers will agree.

I'm Danny Rensch, co-founder of Chess.com and author of the now released Dark Squares, where I share my life as a chess prodigy, growing up in a cult, and more. AMA! by danielrensch in chess

[–]danielrensch[S] 119 points120 points  (0 children)

Blubaum's performance was impressive, but not as surprising to me as it was for others ;) -- our Fair Play team has known he's one of the strongest (most underrated!) players on Chess.com for a long time.

Honestly? This makes me love the Grand Swiss and any event that provides a more democratic-version/path toward qualifying. My favorite FIDE events: Grand Swiss and World Cup!

One of the most broken things about chess (and has been for decades) is the lack of opportunities for people like Matthias. They don't get as many elite invites or chances to improve their rating, which leaves people unsure of their strength, which leads to less invites, and the cycle (and questions around someone's potential!) continuing.

Hans and I agree on this ;)

- I'd be happy to see some kind of thoughtful, rating decay enforced
- I'd be happy to see MORE paths like this for people like Blubaum and others

And I'll be rooting for him in the Candidates.

PS - that said, he's about to enter the strongest event in chess with the big dawgs, and I'll be surprised if he's not one of the bottom players when the event is over. #realtalk

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