We investigate the importance of orbital localization in the application of the Density Matrix Renormalization Group (DMRG) technique to ab initio studies of molecular electronic structure. Our previous implementation of DMRG has been generalized to allow for the use of localized nonorthogonal orbitals. Simple cycles of equidistant hydrogen atoms, which are good examples of one dimensional metal-like lattices with fully delocalized electronic structures, have been taken as test models. In this study, the efficiency of the DMRG method and the importance of orbital localization for the generation of the DMRG building blocks are confirmed. However, it is found that the convergence of the procedure based on nonorthogonal orbitals is slower and requires more DMRG components than the standard orthogonal formulation. Symmetrically orthonormalized atomic orbitals are shown to be a good compromise solution: they satisfy the requirement of orbital localization for the generation of the DMRG blocks and improve the convergence, reducing the number of components of the DMRG expansion. (c) 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2012