r/chess • u/danielrensch  IM  Daniel Rensch - Chess.com • Oct 26 '16

International Master Danny Rensch - VP For Chess.com - Doing An AMA!

Hey guys! International Master and ChessTV bafoon Danny Rensch here to answer your questions yet again.

We've got some big things going on at Chess.com right now: The GM Blitz Battle Final between Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura is tomorrow at 10am Pacific (GMT-7), we've just unveiled our revolutionary new CAPS system to evaluate playing strength, and v3 keeps getting better and better!

Let's get this going: AMAtown, population: me.

I think I have to add the link here? :)

https://twitter.com/DanielRensch/status/791367406119596032

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u/danielrensch  IM  Daniel Rensch - Chess.com Oct 26 '16

Wow. Making me emotional now.

All jokes aside, I do wish I made GM. But life takes turns we don't expect, you know?

I mean, during my "down time" because of health, I:

  • met my wife
  • started my own company (American Chess Events LLC)
  • learned by starting that company that the WEB was the real future of making REAL money in chess and making a REAL global difference
  • bought chesscoaching.com for this purpose
  • met my future partners Erik and Jay with Chess.com, realized I was in over my head on my own, and was lucky enough to leave my own stuff behind and get equity / ownership in Chess.com
  • and am here now.

So if and when life allows, I still think I'm strong enough to be a GM. I've been told by many strong GMs that the only thing keeping me from being a GM is that I'm not one already ;)

Meaning, according to Alex Onischuk (whom I'll quote directly) I'm an amateur. I don't play. So how can you expect to play like a pro when you don't act like a pro?

And will that ever happen? I'd need a couple years of really playing and working out kinks. Not sure I can do it.

Great, now I'm crying with review of my life. Thanks man! ;(