Daniel Aaron "Danya"Naroditsky (November 9, 1995 – October 19, 2025) was an Americanchess grandmaster, commentator, and content creator. During his career, he was widely considered one of the best speed chess players in the world and was consistently ranked among the top 25 players. His major tournament wins include the 2007 World Youth Championship, the 2013 U.S. Junior Championship, and the 2025 U.S. Blitz Championship. He became one of the youngest published authors in chess history at age 14 and earned the chess grandmaster title at age 17.
Naroditsky participated in theUS Chess Championship five times, where he defeated world No. 2Fabiano Caruana in 2021. One of his biggest achievements was tying for first place in the preliminary stage of theWorld Blitz Championship in 2024. In online chess, he was a top player in blitz andbullet, having been the No. 1 rated player at times in both formats onChess.com andLichess. He regularly finished in the top 3 in both the Chess.com Bullet and Hyperbullet Championships.
Naroditsky was a prominent chess streamer. He was known for his educational content onYouTube andTwitch and was highly regarded as a commentator. Naroditsky was anendgame columnist forChess Life, and served as theNew York Times chess columnist. He was the resident grandmaster at the Charlotte Chess Center from 2020 until his death in 2025.
Late in his career, Naroditsky was one of many prominent chess players who were the target of unsubstantiated cheating accusations byVladimir Kramnik. Kramnik's allegations were condemned by many other professional chess players and prompted FIDE to open an ethics investigation against him.
Naroditsky learned chess at age 6 from his older brother, and later his father.[8][9] He often held the No. 1 rank for his age group according to theUnited States Chess Federation and won the 2007 Northern California K–12 Chess Championship, the youngest player ever to do so, according toChess.com.[7] In November 2007, Naroditsky won the Under-12 section of theWorld Youth Chess Championship with 9½/11, tying withIllya Nyzhnyk and winning the gold medal on tiebreaks.[10][11] His win earned him the title ofFIDE Master. At the time, he was a member of theMechanics' Institute Chess Club.[12][13]
In February 2010, aged 14 and 3 months, Naroditsky became the youngest published chess author upon the release ofMastering Positional Chess: Practical Lessons of a Junior World Champion byNew In Chess.[13] At the 2010U.S. Open, Naroditsky scored 7½/9 to share second place withAlexander Shabalov,Varuzhan Akobian, andJulio Sadorra, but behindAlejandro Ramírez. This qualified him for the 2011U.S. Championship.[citation needed] In February 2011, he was awarded the title ofInternational Master.[14] Naroditsky competed in the 2011, 2012,[15] and 2013 U.S. Junior Championships.[8] He won clear first place in 2013 with 6½/9, ahead ofSamuel Sevian and Luke Harmon-Vellotti.[16][17] The 2013 victory qualified him for the 2014 U.S. Championship.[18]
Naroditsky playing in theGroningen Chess Festival 2012
Naroditsky earned his firstgrandmaster (GM)norm at the Benasque Open in July 2011.[19] He earned his second GM norm at the 2013 Philadelphia Open by tying for first place withFidel Corrales Jimenez.[20] He earned his final GM norm at the 2013 Benasque Open.[7][21] Naroditsky was officially awarded the GM title in 2013.[14]
Naroditsky played in the 2011, 2014, 2015, 2017, and 2021 U.S. Championships. In the 2021 U.S. Championship, he defeatedFabiano Caruana who was rated 2800 FIDE and ranked No. 2 in the world.[25] In 2019, Naroditsky tied for first place at theU.S. Masters Championship.[26]
In December 2024, Naroditsky tied for first place in the Swiss portion of the 2024World Blitz Chess Championship with a score of 9½/13 and performance rating of 2749, finishing 9th place on tiebreaks but failing to advance to the 8-player knockout stage.[27] In August 2025, Naroditsky won the U.S. National Blitz Championship with a score of 14/14.[28]
ByFIDE ratings, Naroditsky was consistently ranked in the top 200 in the World and top 15 in the U.S. in Classical, top 75 in Rapid, and top 25 in Blitz.[29] He reached his peak Fide classical rating of 2647 in May 2017.[30] In August 2024, Naroditsky crossed 2700 FIDE Blitz rating for the first time.[29] At the time of his death, his FIDE blitz rating was 2705, ranking No. 23 in the world.[31]
Naroditsky playedonline chess onChess.com under the handle DanielNaroditsky,[32] and onLichess under the handle RebeccaHarris.[33] He frequently ranked at the top of both websites' leaderboards in Blitz andBullet. His peak bullet rating on Chess.com was 3553, and his peak bullet rating on Lichess.org was 3326.[34][35] Naroditsky regularly participated in the Chess.com Bullet and Hyperbullet Championships. He finished in 3rd place in the inaugural Bullet Championship in 2022,[36] and again in 2024 and 2025.[37][38] He was runner-up in the Hyperbullet Championship in both of the first two editions in 2024 and 2025.[39][40] Naroditsky also regularly participated in the weekly Bullet Brawl arena tournaments on Chess.com, winning 32 times.[41]
At 14 years old, Naroditsky published the bookMastering Positional Chess in 2010, becoming one of the youngest authors of a chess book.[42] His second book,Mastering Complex Endgames, was released in 2012.[43] He wroteThe Practical Endgame, a column inChess Life Magazine,[44][9] from 2014 to 2020. In 2022, he wrote a series of 19 columns featuring interactive chess puzzles based on historical games forThe New York Times.[7][9][45]
Naroditsky was an active content creator onYouTube andTwitch, where he had over 494,000 subscribers and 340,000 followers,[48] respectively, at the time of his death.[49][50] He was well known for his educational chess content.[7][51] Naroditsky was a frequent commentator for top-levelChess.com events, and was named their lead commentator in 2021.[52] He was highly regarded as a commentator for being insightful and entertaining, and his ability to make puns.[7][51][52] He regularly commentated alongside fellow American GrandmasterRobert Hess, and the two have been referred to as a "commentary dream team".[53]
Beginning in October 2024, Naroditsky was repeatedly accused of cheating by former world championVladimir Kramnik, without substantial evidence. Since 2023, Kramnik hasaccused numerous other players of cheating with flawed or insubstantial corroborating evidence.[54] Naroditsky rejected the allegations, stating "To do what Kramnik has done and what everybody who supports him have done, in my mind, morally, it makes you worse than dirt."[55][56][57] Naroditsky also commented on those that support Kramnik directly, calling them an "army of troglodyte lowlifes."[58] Naroditsky was defended against the accusations by several figures of the chess community, including prominent figures such as GMHikaru Nakamura and IMLevy Rozman, among many others.[59] Kramnik's cheating allegations against Naroditsky continued until his death.
During a podcast hosted by fellow GMsFabiano Caruana andCristian Chirilă in 2024, Naroditsky said the allegations had taken a deep toll on him.[60] He called Kramnik's campaign "...a sustained, evil, and absolutely unhinged attempt to destroy my life," adding, "He is trying to ruin my life, he’s trying to inflict emotional harm, physical harm on me. He knows exactly what he’s doing."[61] In his final livestream, on October 17, 2025, he suggested people might assume "the worst of intentions" if he were to start playing well off-stream.[55][62][63]
Following his death,FIDE said it was investigating Kramnik's campaign against Naroditsky, following calls for action by the chess community, including figures such asNihal Sarin,[64]Anna Cramling,[65] andNemo Zhou[66][67]. FIDE PresidentArkady Dvorkovich said they will refer all relevant public statements made by Kramnik to the Ethics and Disciplinary Commission. Former world championMagnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, and others condemned Kramnik's conduct.[63][68] As of October 27, an online petition for FIDE to ban Kramnik had reached over 50,000 signatures.[69][70][71] In a statement onX, Kramnik referred to Naroditsky's death as a tragedy and denied making any personal attacks towards Naroditsky.[72]
Naroditsky was found unresponsive on his couch byOlexandr Bortnyk and Peter Giannatos in his home in Charlotte on the evening of October 19, 2025, and was pronounced dead by medics at the scene at the age of 29.[73][74] The Charlotte Chess Center announced his death the following day, citing the family’s request for privacy. Police reported no evidence of foul play.[75]
According to the medical examiner’s report released in January 2026, Naroditsky’s death was ruled accidental and attributed to probable cardiacarrhythmia due to probable cardiac involvement of systemicsarcoidosis.Methamphetamine andkratom were detected in his system, but the levels were determined to be non-lethal and were listed only as contributory factors.[76]
Naroditsky's death became public during the2025 United States Chess Championship, and the competition day on October 20 began with amoment of silence in his honor.[51] FIDE said that it would honor him with a special award and establish a prize in his name, recognizing his contributions as a player, teacher, and commentator.[77][63]
The Charlotte Chess Center and the Naroditsky family created the Daniel Naroditsky Memorial Fund.[80] This fund seeks to raise $4 million to create both the "Naroditsky Blitz and Rapid Championship", an official tournament, and the "Naroditsky Fellowship", a scholarship program for young chess players.
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