Daniel Naroditsky, a chess grandmaster who constructed a worldwide following by his accessible instructing type and blitz chess mastery, died unexpectedly at 29, his household introduced Monday. The California-born participant, who posted his first YouTube video after a nine-month absence final Friday, was discovered unconscious on a sofa at his Charlotte, N.C., residence on Sunday by membership founder Peter Giannatos and grandmaster Oleksandr Bortnyk. The reason for dying has not been disclosed.
Since his death, many in the chess community, including leadership in the International Chess Federation (FIDE), have pointed fingers at a protracted battle between Naroditsky and Russian former world champion Vladimir Kramnik, who spent greater than a 12 months publicly accusing Naroditsky of dishonest in on-line chess with out offering substantial proof. In an October 2024 interview with the C-Squared podcast, Naroditsky referred to as Kramnik’s marketing campaign “a sustained, evil and completely unhinged try and destroy my life.” He added: “He’s making an attempt to smash my life, he’s making an attempt to inflict emotional hurt, bodily hurt on me. He is aware of precisely what he’s doing.”
The accusations appeared to weigh closely on Naroditsky. In his final livestream Saturday, he mentioned the lasting influence of Kramnik’s allegations. “Ever for the reason that Kramnik stuff, I really feel like if I begin doing effectively, individuals assume the worst of intentions,” he mentioned. “The problem is simply the lingering impact of it.”
Indian grandmaster Nihal Sarin, who performed the final video games towards Naroditsky on Chess.com, told The Indian Express Naroditsky had mentioned he was “below immense stress attributable to a whole lot of baseless accusations—headed by Kramnik, in fact.” Sarin mentioned Kramnik “has type of actually taken a life” and referred to as for sanctions towards the Russian participant.
Naroditsky achieved the grandmaster title in 2013 when he was simply 18 years previous. He gained the Below-12 World Youth Chess Championship in 2007, and was persistently ranked within the prime 200 worldwide for classical chess, maintaining a top 25 ranking in blitz chess all through his profession. In August, he gained the U.S. Nationwide Blitz Championship with an ideal 14-0 rating. His estimated web price ranged between $500,000 and $1 million on the time of his dying.
Whereas he earned over $108,000 in documented prize money from greater than 150 tournaments—together with $17,920 from a single 2021 on-line occasion—his aggressive winnings represented solely a fraction of his whole earnings. His true financial success came from diversifying into the burgeoning chess content economy.
With over 500,000 YouTube subscribers and 340,000 Twitch followers, Naroditsky created loads of additional income for himself by subscriptions, donations, promoting, and sponsorships. Business knowledge from 2024 estimated his monthly Twitch earnings between $10,000 and $30,000. He additionally authored two educational books—Mastering Positional Chess, printed when he was simply 14, and Mastering Complex Endgames—that proceed to generate royalties. As head coach on the Charlotte Chess Middle and an everyday columnist for The New York Times and Chess Life journal, his profession embodied the transformation of aggressive chess right into a viable digital enterprise mannequin, capitalizing on a worldwide on-line chess market valued at $1.2 billion in 2024 and projected to reach $3.6 billion by 2033.
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Naroditsky was broadly praised for his potential to elucidate complicated chess ideas clearly. “Daniel was an unbelievable trainer and explainer of chess and ideas and concepts,” Daniel Weissbarth, co-owner of Silver Knights Chess Academy in Virginia, told the AP.
Kramnik, who became world champion in 2000, has accused multiple players of online cheating in recent years. Czech grandmaster David Navara revealed Kramnik’s allegations made him feel suicidal and wrote to the Worldwide Chess Federation (FIDE) requesting sanctions, however no motion was taken. Chess.com suspended Kramnik from prize occasions in 2023 after he made accusations towards a number of gamers, prompting Kramnik to claim the platform was making an attempt to “silence me.”
Following Naroditsky’s dying, Kramnik posted on social media platform X, writing “Don’t Do Drugs” and calling for an investigation into what he described as “strange recent stream” earlier than his dying. He claimed Naroditsky’s buddies had been “hiding” alarming conduct and erasing proof by eradicating current Twitch movies. The feedback drew widespread condemnation from the chess neighborhood.
World No. 2 Hikaru Nakamura said he was “devastated” by the information and directed expletives at Kramnik on his livestream. Magnus Carlsen, the world champion, said he had privately supported Naroditsky however “in all probability ought to have accomplished so publicly as effectively,” calling Kramnik’s pursuit of Naroditsky “appalling.”
FIDE CEO Emil Sutovsky instructed Reuters the organization was “looking into” Kramnik’s year-long campaign towards Naroditsky. FIDE president Arkady Dvorkovich mentioned the federation will establish a prize in Naroditsky’s memory, describing him as “not solely a superb grandmaster, but additionally a tireless ambassador for chess, and above all—a sort, compassionate and actually good individual.”
Naroditsky’s household requested privateness and requested he be remembered “for his ardour and love for the sport of chess, and for the enjoyment and inspiration he delivered to us all every single day.”
You possibly can watch Naroditsky’s last YouTube video under:
For this story, Fortune used generative AI to assist with an preliminary draft. An editor verified the accuracy of the knowledge earlier than publishing.
