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 speed chess that flourished in the COVID-19 pandemic, died over the weekend and leaves behind a legacy as one of the greats of the game who helped usher in its digital era.

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

High-speed games became wildly popular online during the pandemic, creating a chess community that was soon rife with cheating allegations as players gained access to sophisticated computer programs that could give them an unfair advantage.

Naroditsky’s untimely death has shined a spotlight on the dark underbelly of the game that fellow pros say brought undue hostility upon the chess star in his final months.

Naroditsky had been accused of cheating, and the allegations, never proven, had taken a toll. Ukrainian grandmaster Oleksandr Bortnyk, a competitor and friend of Naroditsky, was concerned and went to check on him Sunday. He and a friend found Naroditsky, known to many as Danya, unresponsive 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 for chess, and above all — a kind, compassionate and truly good person,” said Arkady Dvorkovich, president of the International Chess Federation.

Legacy of integrity

The unsubstantiated claims of cheating came from from Russian grandmaster and former World Chess Champion Vladimir Kramnik, whom Naroditsky had called one of the “heroes” he looked up to as a kid.

Naroditsky had denied the claims as he excelled at blitz and bullet chess, where players have mere minutes to finish intense matches.

“Ever since the Kramnik stuff, I feel like if I start doing well, people assume the worst of intentions,” Naroditsky said Saturday in the last livestream he filmed before his death. “The issue is just the lingering effect of it.”

He ruminated about his legacy and hoped other top players would trust that he played with integrity.

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

Meanwhile, grandmasters have slammed Kramnik on social media for how he treated Naroditsky. American grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura went on an expletive-laden rant on his latest livestream, and Indian grandmaster Nihal Sarin accused the Russian pro of trying to destroy Naroditsky’s life in a post on X.

Kramnik continued to post 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 aside from World Chess Champion, at the age of 18. He was consistently ranked in the top 200 worldwide for traditional chess and was a top 25 blitz player, winning the U.S. National Blitz Championship in August. He spent much of his time training young players.

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

Blame game

Many pros this week called for an end to the constant finger-pointing that seemed to follow players like Naroditsky who thrived in fast-paced play.

Kenneth Regan, a chess international master and computer science professor at the University at Buffalo, said the opportunity to cheat has exploded as the cerebral sport has shifted online. There are ways to police the game online, but Regan said they are intrusive.

“The rate of cheating online is 100 to 200 times higher than the rate over the board,” Regan said. “From my point of view, there are five to 10 cases per year over the board.”

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 about “many dozens of players.” At the time, the platform warned of “Kramnik’s escalating attacks” against some of the most respected members of the chess community and some promising young talents.

The speedy style of play popularized in chess’ digital arena is somewhat reliant on the honor system.

Top talents analyze the board so quickly and move with such precision that cheating allegations have become common. Bullet chess is so fast, Regan said, that it’s essentially “playing chess entirely with your gut.”

Nurturing young talent

Last week, Naroditsky posted a video in his popular Speedrun series on YouTube, telling viewers he was “back, better than ever” after a short “creative break.” His videos, in which he gave tips and discussed strategy, were great tools for chess players of various abilities, 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 talk to you how to manage them,” Balas said.

Nakamura and five-time World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen are also using social media to take chess to a wider audience, increasing its popularity around the world.

“People, they see Daniel or other streamers and they start to play online chess,” said John Hartmann, editor of Chess Life magazine. “The streaming personalities, they lead people into the chess world.”

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