CCO of Chess.com Danny Rensch shared his thoughts on chess’s dependency on Magnus Carlsen in an interview with Dina Belenkaya on January 24. Rensch noted that chess lacks strong players to create a “Premier-League” equivalent.

Daniel Rensch

Daniel Rensch

CCO of Chess.com

“Unfortunately, right now, yes, we are dependent on Magnus. Long term, I do not believe that chess is dependent on anybody in that way. I think that chess has gone through Bobby Fischer, and Gary Kasparov, and Magnus Carlsen, and Beth Harmon, as far as characters that we have relied upon to grow the game. I think that chess as a game is in a better space than it’s ever been.

I have also been very direct with Jan Henric about this. While I love the idea of a Formula-1 or a Premier-League for chess, I think we are not in a place to have such things because we lack stars outside of Magnus and Hikaru, honestly.

It starts with those two guys and I think it starts with Magnus still being the best player in the World, objectively. I think we are dependent on Magnus because he and the legacy events are not currently aligned. Is that his fault? I guess, you could say, credit and blame smell the same. Is it Magnus’s fault that he’s the best at every time control?”

In 2025, Magnus Carlsen (2840) won the Esports World Cup, the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour, and Clutch Chess. He concluded the year by winning both the FIDE World Rapid and World Blitz Championships, securing his 20th total World Championship Title across Classical (5 times), Rapid (6 times), and Blitz (9 times).