With its innate ability to translate to a two-dimensional format, chess is a growth industry in these days of the COVID-19 pandemic. The mainstream media is taking note, and our game has been the beneficiary of quite a bit of press coverage in the past few weeks.
In early May the Wall Street Journal, noting supply chain difficulties with yeast and burgeoning interest in chess, ran an article titled “Chess is the new King of the Pandemic” and cited the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Giannis Antetokounmpolo, Saquon Barkley, and Joe Biden as fans of the game. They also noted the “overnight spike” in traffic at online chess playing sites, quoting chess.com CCO Danny Rensch in the process.
The New York Times ran a story at roughly the same time focusing on the Online Nations Cup, with quotes from Fabiano Caruana and… chess.com CCO Danny Rensch! (Dude gets around!)
