Chess Grandmaster Daniel Naroditsky Dies at 29

The chess world was recently shaken by the untimely death of Grandmaster (GM) Daniel Naroditsky, whose passion and insight touched players around the world. Known best for his expert chess commentary, educational streams, and late-night blitz and bullet sessions, Daniel Naroditsky (nicknamed Danya) passed away on October 19, a few weeks before what would have been his 30th birthday.

Naroditsky, who grew up in the Bay Area, was celebrated for his intellect, eloquence, humility, and kindness. In a livestream, Magnus Carlsen, 16th World Champion and regarded by many as the greatest player of all time, commented that he was a “great opponent, but also very, very respectful, very nice… [he] also had… a universally high approval rating of everybody he met.”

This rare combination of brilliance and character was evident from an early age. He was a three-time U.S. Scholastic champion, the #1 ranked 9 year old in the United States, the 2007 U12 boys’ World Youth Champion, and ranked in the top 200 players in FIDE’s classical rating list. At just 14, he authored Mastering Positional Chess: Practical Lessons of a Junior World Champion which earned raving reviews from established Grandmasters and new chessplayers alike. New In Chess magazine praised the eloquence and clarity of thought in his “chess prose,” describing his book as “one of the best books on positional chess ever written.” He earned the Grandmaster title at 17, and later graduated from Stanford University with a degree in history. In 2019, he moved to Charlotte, NC to pursue chess full time. There, he became the “grandmaster-in-residence” at the Charlotte Chess Center, where he cemented his career as a beloved streamer, commentator, teacher, and chess personality, frequently writing articles for Chess.com, the New York Times, and the Chess Life magazine.

Neil Bhaduri (9), who had the chance to see Naroditsky at a few chess tournaments, said, “I did see some of his tournaments and some of his streams, he definitely was a really good chess player and a good commentator. I’ve heard a lot of really good things about him, and definitely a serious loss for the chess community. His bullet games were very funny, I think he played 200 hyperbullet games against Alireza at some point. It was definitely very enjoyable to watch.”

The cause of death of the 29 year old Russian-American chess prodigy is still unknown, and the police are investigating drug overdose and suicide as possible causes. His death sparked widespread outrage among well known members of the chess community, including streamers, and fellow world class players, with the vast majority of the anger directed towards the former World Chess Champion, Vladimir Kramnik. In early 2024, GM Kramnik took it upon himself to eliminate online cheating in chess. Initially, Kramnik held strong support among many chess players who felt that platforms like chess.com weren’t doing enough to prevent online cheating. However, his “guilty until proven innocent” methodology and subjective anti-cheating radar drew widespread criticism.

“Cheating is a problem and people are doing it,” said Henry Deng (10), “but obviously the way [Kramnik] is doing it is not right.”

The controversies intensified after Kramnik began levying accusations without empirical evidence against several of the game’s most beloved and accomplished players, among them World #2 (as of November 2025) Hikaru Nakamura, 2013 World Blitz Champion Le Quang Liem, and Czech Grandmaster David Navara. After getting his blog taken down by Chess.com, GM Kramnik took to X and Youtube to share his accusations. Since October of 2024, he has been on an aggressive public tirade against GM Naroditsky. Despite going on several public debates with each other, including one on the Levitov Chess Podcast in Russian, where GM Naroditsky convinced most viewers of his innocence, his resistance only fomented GM Kramnik’s accusations. These accusations persisted over the course of a year, to the point where it severely affected GM Naroditsky’s mental health. Naroditsky described the situation as a “sustained, evil and absolutely unhinged attempt to destroy my life” on a podcast episode he recorded just 3 months before his death.

Since Naroditsky’s death, several prominent members of the chess community took to X, Youtube, and several other platforms to criticize FIDE’s inaction regarding Kramnik’s accusations; and a recent petition on Change.org calling for the International Chess Federation (FIDE) to strip Kramnik of his GM title and for the CEO of FIDE to step down has amassed 54,000 signatures.

Gupta says, “I signed it instantly, and I sent it to a lot of people that I know”.

As of November 2025, the International Chess Federation has not officially responded to the petition, but they have responded to the extensive criticism by launching an internal investigation into their subcommittee, the FIDE Ethics Committee. However, there is little optimism in the chess community concerning the results of the investigation.

“Organizations like FIDE do a poor job with these things”, “in the end, nothing is going to happen”.