Danny Rensch, cofounder and chief chess officer of Chess.com, calls self-delusion a necessary ingredient in entrepreneurship — a mindset that helped him transform a traditional game into a global online powerhouse. Rensch tells Fortune that seeing a future that didn’t yet exist required confidence in something most others dismissed as unrealistic.

Born with a passion for chess, Rensch’s life was marked early by adversity. Bedridden after a serious injury as a young player, he found himself drawn to the internet and inspired by its potential to connect players worldwide. That moment of pivot — combining necessity with bold belief — set the stage for what Chess.com would become. Today, the platform has hundreds of millions of registered users and hosts millions of matches every day, attracting both casual players and world-class grandmasters.

Remarkably, Chess.com surpassed a $1 billion valuation without traditional venture capital backing, a testament to the founders’ persistence and vision. Rensch credits the company’s success to embracing risks, enduring setbacks, and maintaining faith in a bold idea when others doubted it.