Giri Adopts Rensch While Raising Funds for Adoption

On Monday, GM Anish Giri and IM Danny Rensch teamed up for the third installment of the "Adopt-a-Danny" series—a special event to help raise awareness for adoption, contributing all donated proceeds to the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. 

The community contributed $420 during the live broadcast and Giri graciously matched the funds out of his own pocket. A kind gesture from Rensch's newest daddy! Here is the entire broadcast of the show:

Rensch avoided getting 10-0'd out of the gate (after starting down five games) in the 5|0 section of the match. A highlight moment for him occurred during the 3|0 segment when he found the devastating Qa7-a3+ (after a long time in the think tank):


Giri was definitely surprised that Rensch had found this move that stopped another winning streak. This put the pressure on Giri to win 10 in a row in the bullet section, where Giri felt confident in his chances, stating:

"The level of my chess is going to go up dramatically because this is a time control I can actually play." Giri proved himself correct, as he won the next nine games in a row. However, there was still more fun and shenanigans to be had.

In the final game of the show, Giri was on a 9-0 winning streak and needed this final win. He was in a clearly winning position when this happened:

Luckily for Giri, Rensch's a-pawn could still move even though his king could not! Giri won the final game, making it 10 in a row and he successfully adopted Rensch.

In total, with the help of generous viewers and donors as well as Giri's matching of the funds, Chess.com was able to raise $840 for the foundation after surpassing the initial goal of raising $250.

This Adopt-A-Danny was the third of its kind after GM Wesley So adopted Rensch in both the 5+1 and 1+1 segments last month and GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave had signed the adoption papers in the first edition of the series.

Each time, Rensch is looking to avoid "adoption" (losing in 10 consecutive games) against strong grandmasters across three different blitz and bullet time controls. Ongoing adoption streaks can only be ended with a Rensch win or draw. He cannot be saved by the time running out in the segment.