Chess grandmaster Daniel Naroditsky is remembered as a leader in the game’s online surge

Daniel Naroditsky, a 29-year-old standard-bearer in the world of competitive rapid chess who thrived during the COVID-19 pandemic, died this weekend and leaves behind a legacy as one of the game’s greats who helped usher in its digital age.

The American grandmaster won several championships and amassed hundreds of thousands of subscribers on YouTube, Twitch and other platforms, where he streamed matches live and explained his strategy in real time. But he also struggled with the cyberspace he helped build.

High-speed games have become hugely popular online during the pandemic, creating a chess community that was quickly plagued by allegations of cheating, with players given access to sophisticated computer programs that could give them an unfair advantage.

Naroditsky’s untimely death shed light on the dark underbelly of the game that other professionals say led to excessive hostility toward the chess star in his final months.

Naroditsky had been accused of cheating and these allegations, never proven, had harmful consequences. Ukrainian grandmaster Oleksandr Bortnyk, a competitor and friend of Naroditsky, was worried and went to see him on Sunday. He and a friend found Naroditsky, known to many as Danya, unconscious on a couch in his North Carolina home, Bortnyk recounted during an emotional livestream Monday.

The cause of death has not been made public.

“Danya was not only a brilliant grandmaster, but also a tireless ambassador of chess and, above all, a kind, compassionate and truly good person,” said Arkady Dvorkovich, president of the International Chess Federation.

The unsubstantiated allegations of cheating came from Russian grandmaster and former world chess champion Vladimir Kramnik, whom Naroditsky called a “hero” he admired as a child.

Naroditsky had denied the claims because he excelled at blitz and bullet chess, where players have only a few minutes to complete intense matches.

“Since the Kramnik affair, I have the impression that if I start doing good, people assume the worst intentions,” Naroditsky said Saturday in the last livestream he filmed before his death. “The problem is just the lingering effect of this situation. »

He reflected on his legacy and hoped other top players would trust his integrity.

Chess professionals around the world have since hailed Naroditsky as an honorable player who used his online platform to make chess more accessible. His family said in a statement that they hoped he would be remembered for the joy and inspiration he brought to people.

Meanwhile, grandmasters criticized Kramnik on social media for the way he treated Naroditsky. American grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura unleashed an expletive-laden rant during his latest livestream, and Indian grandmaster Nihal Sarin accused the Russian pro of trying to destroy Naroditsky’s life in an article on X.

Kramnik continued to publish articles about Naroditsky on the day his death was announced, calling it a tragedy and speculating about the cause.

Naroditsky became a grandmaster, the highest title in chess outside of world chess champion, at the age of 18. He has been consistently ranked in the world’s top 200 in traditional chess and was a top 25 blitz player, winning the US National Blitz Championship in August. He spent much of his time training young players.

“Daniel was an incredible teacher and explainer of chess, concepts and ideas,” said Daniel Weissbarth, renowned chess instructor and co-owner of Silver Knights Chess Academy in Virginia.

This week, many pros called for an end to the constant accusations that seemed to follow players like Naroditsky who thrived in fast-paced play.

Kenneth Regan, an international chess master and computer science professor at the University at Buffalo, said the opportunities to cheat have exploded as the brain sport has moved online. There are ways to control online gambling, but Regan said they are intrusive.

“The online cheating rate is 100 to 200 times higher than the general rate,” Regan said. “From my point of view, there are five to ten cases per year in all areas. »

The popular Internet chess server Chess.com shut down Kramnik’s blog on the site in 2023, saying he had used it to spread baseless cheating allegations regarding “several dozen players”. At the time, the platform warned of “escalating Kramnik attacks” against some of the most respected members of the chess community and some promising young talents.

The fast-paced style of play popularized in the digital chess arena relies to some extent on the honor system.

Top talent scans the board so quickly and moves with such precision that allegations of cheating have become common. Ball chess is so fast, Regan said, that it’s essentially “playing chess entirely with your instincts.”

Last week, Naroditsky posted a video from his popular Speedrun series on YouTube, telling viewers he was “back, better than ever” after a short “creative hiatus.” His videos, in which he gave advice and discussed strategy, were great tools for chess players of different levels, said Benjamin Balas, a psychology professor at North Dakota State.

“He would tell you, ‘This is the kind of mistake you’re going to see at this level,’ and he would make mistakes too and tell you how to deal with them,” Balas said.

Nakamura and five-time world chess champion Magnus Carlsen also use social media to bring chess to a wider audience, increasing their popularity worldwide.

“People see Daniel or other streamers and start playing chess online,” said John Hartmann, editor-in-chief of Chess Life magazine. “Streaming personalities lead people into the world of chess.”

Carlsen credited Naroditsky for his work in streaming, saying he was “such a resource for the chess community.”