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

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Daniel Naroditsky, a standard-bearer in the world of competitive chess that flourished in the COVID-19 pandemic, died Monday at the age of 29, leaving behind a legacy as one of the greats of the game who helped usher in its digital era.

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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.

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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.

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

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His cause of death has not been released.

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Ukrainian grandmaster Oleksandr Bortnyk described on a livestream how he and a friend went to Naroditsky’s home to check on him and found the chess pro unresponsive on the couch.

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Legacy of integrity

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Naroditsky had been dogged by unsubstantiated claims of cheating from Russian grandmaster and former World Chess Champion Vladimir Kramnik, whom Naroditsky had called one of the “heroes” he looked up to as a young player.

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The California-born pro had denied the claims as he excelled at blitz and bullet chess, where players have mere minutes to finish intense matches. He was vocal about how the allegations took a toll on him.

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“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.”

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

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

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Grandmasters slammed Kramnik this week on social media for how he had 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.

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

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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 in Charlotte, North Carolina.