US chess grandmaster Daniel Naroditsky dies aged 29
Daniel Naroditsky, also known to his online fans as 'Danya', died two weeks out from his 30th birthday
- Published
US chess grandmaster and popular YouTube chess commentator Daniel Naroditsky has died aged 29.
The chess player's family announced his "unexpected" death in a statement released by his club, the Charlotte Chess Center, on Monday. No cause of death was given.
The statement described him as a "cherished member of the chess community, admired and respected by fans and players around the world".
Naroditsky was famous for his chess YouTube channel, which featured video tutorials and livestreams against competitors, and inspired hundreds of thousands of people across the world to play the game.
Naroditsky's channel had nearly 500,000 subscribers, while his Twitch stream drummed up 340,000 followers.
Fans praised his insight and passion, casually referring to him as "Danya".
He played a "pivotal role in popularising chess content online", the International Chess Federation said.
"This is a massive loss for the world of chess," chess world number two, Hikaru Nakamura, said in a social media post.
Nakamura - a close friend of Naroditsky - told the BBC "he inspired hundreds of thousands of people to play chess - a lot of people loved his videos".
"When it came to making chess content to help beginners, his was the best," he said.
"I have played more than a thousand games of chess with Daniel," Nakamura added. "Chess is a very cut-throat world and emotions run high, but Daniel was always calm."
The online content creation "wasn't about money for him", Nakamura said. "He had a true passion for the game."
Naroditsky first took an interest in chess at the age of six, when his older brother Alan asked him to help entertain a group of children at a birthday party.
His father Vladimir and multiple coaches soon noticed his talents.
"As far as I was concerned, I was just playing games with my brother," Naroditsky told the New York Times in a 2022 interview.
Naroditsky in 2008, following his World Youth Championship victory in Turkey
He gained international attention in 2007, when he won the under-12 boys' world youth championship in Antalya, Turkey.
At the age of 14, he published a book called Mastering Positional Chess, about practical skills and technical manoeuvrings in the game.
He earned the title of grandmaster - the international chess federation's highest-ranked chess competitor - while he was still a teenager, after winning the 2013 US Junior Championship.
Naroditsky later graduated from Stanford University and worked as a chess coach in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The New York Times hired him in 2022 as a new chess columnist and asked him to contribute to a series of chess puzzles for its games section.
"Even at my level, I can still discover beautiful things about the game every single time I train, teach, play or am a commentator at a tournament," Naroditsky told the newspaper at the time.
In the world of chess content creation, Naroditsky was "best known for his late-night streams, his speed runs, and for being an exceptional bullet player", his friend and fellow chess player Nemo Zhou told the BBC.
Zhou – a Toronto-based Woman Chess Grandmaster and chess content creator – told the BBC that Naroditsky was an "inspiration".
Zhou played chess with him, both in person and virtually, at chess events across the US.
"He had this way to make chess fun," she said.
She added that he was known for being a "true historian of the game" who had a great memory for chess facts and historical games, and "did everything with kindness".
"Without people like him I probably would have quit chess at 17 and never touched it again," she said.
Hundreds of tributes have been paid to Naroditsky by amateur chess players who admired his playing and his video tutorials.
Zara Graham, 20, from the Lake District in the UK, told the BBC it was Naroditsky's videos that inspired her to play the game regularly.
"Even though I never met him in person, I was absolutely devastated to hear the news," she said. "I actually cried when I found out.
"He was a brilliant chess teacher who inspired me to start playing when I was 14. He explained things in his YouTube videos so that everyone could understand."
Ms Graham added: "He made an impact on thousands of people around the world."