[HN Gopher] Chess grandmaster Daniel Naroditsky has died
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Chess grandmaster Daniel Naroditsky has died
Author : ntnbr
Score : 280 points
Date : 2025-10-20 17:24 UTC (5 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (old.reddit.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (old.reddit.com)
| perihelions wrote:
| This is shocking, I have no words. The poor guy.
| ajiang wrote:
| This makes me so tremendously sad. Danya was one of the biggest
| blessings to the online chess community.
| toomuchtodo wrote:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Naroditsky
| Ataraxic wrote:
| Super out of the blue. I loved his videos and he taught me a lot
| after I got into chess during covid.
|
| rest in peace.
| password54321 wrote:
| Really good teacher, helped me go from 800 to 1600 in under a
| year. Used to watch his speedruns a lot.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/@DanielNaroditskyGM
| _dark_matter_ wrote:
| I was wondering why I knew his name - he published a series of
| chess puzzles based on actual historic games in the NYT:
| https://www.nytimes.com/spotlight/chess-puzzles.
|
| They were fabulous, and I especially enjoyed his commentary. May
| he rest in peace.
| dak1 wrote:
| Danya was such an incredibly positive influence on the chess
| community, a tremendous teacher whose YouTube content I'm sure
| will remain popular for years to come, and my personal favorite
| chess commentator.
|
| He was also only 29 years old.
|
| I'm actually in tears right now struggling how to break this news
| to my son, who absolutely loved Danya and had a chance to play
| him OTB last year.
| bongodongobob wrote:
| He was such a great teacher and player. Absolutely loved his
| videos. He seemed like such a wholesome positive person, this is
| very sad.
| nightfox1 wrote:
| RIP the great RebeccaHarris :(
| amrrs wrote:
| It's heartbreaking and sad. His video a couple of days back was
| literally titled "You thought I was gone! Speedrun retruns"
|
| The comments on that video was so kind and heartwarming where
| people wished him well.
|
| While we don't know the exact cause, we can all agree that he was
| subjected to extreme bullying and no one stood up for him - most
| importantly FIDE!
| CalChris wrote:
| Kramnick.
| nomilk wrote:
| From what I understand, Kramnick pointed out Danya's
| behaviour was erratic and suspected alcohol or drug use
| (everyone else broached it much more sensitively, saying
| drugs was a ridiculous notion, and giving him space/privacy
| but perhaps suspecting possible mental health, mental
| breakdown, or maybe narcolepsy).
|
| Kramnick may have been forthright and lacking tact, but it
| was clear from Danya's behaviours that he sadly had an
| underlying psychological condition that could happen to any
| of us.
| monooso wrote:
| Kramnick repeatedly accused Danya of cheating, which
| prompted a lot of ongoing abuse from his acolytes. Danya
| spoke publicly about the stress this caused him several
| times.
|
| Of course, as ever, Kramnick had nothing to back up his
| claims, a fact which in no way prevented him repeating them
| ad-nauseum.
|
| That's not being "forthright" or "lacking tact". That's
| being an abusive asshole.
| nomilk wrote:
| I hadn't follow closely enough and wasn't aware - thanks
| for pointing out.
|
| Kramnick accuses Danya of cheating (several pieces of
| circumstantial 'evidence' in the thread):
| https://x.com/VBkramnik/status/1911179469773033512
|
| A tweet by IM Kostya Kavutskiy of ChessDojo from November
| 2024 (paraphrased):
|
| > Our intention was to express concern for what's going
| on. Many of us supported Kramnik's fight against online
| cheating for some time.
|
| > But then he started naming players left & right, some
| of whom were likely 100% innocent, who got their name
| dragged through the mud regardless. Kramnik also started
| naming actual children at one point, without any real
| evidence from what I could tell
|
| > And it's not "just asking questions", it's casting
| aspersions. And the words of any world champion obviously
| carry a lot of responsibility.
|
| https://x.com/hellokostya/status/1852388806143390131
| syllogism wrote:
| This has been discussed to death but to reiterate here:
| people have been much too polite about Kramnick's
| nonsense. Danya and Hikaru are (were) probably the two
| people in the world whose bullet play is least
| suspicious. Cheating isn't very powerful in short time
| controls, and they have streamed thousands of games
| playing them.
|
| Kramnick's bullshit never made any damn sense at all.
| mathattack wrote:
| Several years ago he taught kids locally in the Bay Area. Very
| sad to see someone go that's so young.
| sexyman48 wrote:
| If life could be measured in potential moves considered, he lived
| several lifetimes. Sad to see such a force of nature expire so
| soon. Condolences to the Russian chick and their kid.
| heartbreak wrote:
| > Condolences to the Russian chick and their kid.
|
| The statement from CCC doesn't mention him having a kid. Pretty
| sure he did not have one.
| atannen wrote:
| Ouch. Danya was a great player (world rank 151, USA rank 17).
| Popular player, teacher, streamer and chess event commentator.
| Studied at Stanford. The NY Times' current chess columnist. About
| to turn 30 years old.
| mellosouls wrote:
| This is terrible news if true; so young and such a positive voice
| and influence.
|
| One of the best live commentators, and among a generation of
| savvy chess influencers he seemed particularly sincere and
| without motivation beyond love of the game and communicating it's
| brilliance to others.
|
| RIP GM Danya
| perihelions wrote:
| > _" if true"_
|
| To swiftly terminate that thread, it is not a hoax; his North
| Carolina friend Oleksandr Bortnyk confirmed it on his video
| stream.
| colechristensen wrote:
| I'm shocked, he was a great teacher and seemed like the nicest
| dude of all the chess streamers out there.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/@DanielNaroditskyGM/videos
|
| https://www.twitch.tv/gmnaroditsky
|
| https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/12/crosswords/chess-columnis...
| mokkol wrote:
| I can't believe this. Yesterday I saw his last educational
| speedrun[0]. He was such a great positive dude and I really
| enjoyed his content.
|
| He will be missed!
|
| [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rqPeGKVPbA&t=1834s
|
| I would love to donate some to his family if anybody has a link
| to share.
| underdeserver wrote:
| Are you sure? I think the statement said he _was_ a son.
| mokkol wrote:
| You are right, sorry about that. I can't read today. I
| deleted that part.
| vrnvu wrote:
| Shocking to hear this news. I used to watch Danya's videos a
| lot... RIP
| srge wrote:
| He was such a great guy. Wholesome. What a loss.
| RandomBacon wrote:
| Regarding the flagged/dead comment that links to concern about
| Daniel Naroditsky's health a few days ago, I don't think burrying
| our heads in the sand is correct approach now.
|
| It might have been wise to respect his privacy and not talk about
| him publicly and while he was alive and could read it, but now
| that posting it cannot affect his mental health, perhaps mental
| health awareness is important to talk about.
|
| (A side note, I still think the privacy of those who pass away is
| important, but I think talking about mental health is also
| important.)
| greenavocado wrote:
| Could have been an adverse reaction to Benadryl or his sleep
| disturbances could have been a warning sign.
|
| "BeccaHarris: I took a Benadryl to make sure I got 8+ hours of
| sleep, it hit me a lot faster and harder than expected. before
| I knew it 15+ mins had passed and I nodded off a few times, and
| suddenly poeople were freaking ou"
|
| https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/1obo71s/comment/nkhb...
|
| https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2017/06/sleep-disturb...
| JohnLocke4 wrote:
| I suggest we stop speculating about the cause of death and
| instead wait for an official announcement to be made. Please
| respect the family at this time.
| mynameisvlad wrote:
| I get respecting the family while grieving but let's be
| real here, is anyone from the family realistically going to
| even find let alone care about random strangers speculating
| on a random internet platform that isn't even related to
| chess?
|
| The chance of this even reaching them is infinitesimally
| small. We're not standing around talking about it with them
| in the room, we shouldn't be pretending like we are.
| nonethewiser wrote:
| Its definitely normal to wonder "what happened?"
| colechristensen wrote:
| Morbid curiosity is maybe natural but I think it's bad form for
| a bunch of online speculation into cause of death by armchair
| researchers. He's a real person and his family and friends are
| real people and they deserve freedom from that kind of
| speculation running wild across the Internet. There's no
| benefit for anyone, it's just curiosity that shouldn't be
| engaged in.
| programjames wrote:
| I would prefer you refer to it as "courtesy" or
| "consideration" rather than "freedom".
| DuperPower wrote:
| its not morbid wanting to know if a Young person commited
| suicide
| colechristensen wrote:
| morbid curiosity literally curiosity about disease and
| death
|
| I'm not sure what you think "morbid" means.
| i_am_jl wrote:
| "Morbid" indicates that the curiosity about disease and
| death is _unhealthy_.
|
| Describing a university course on infectious disease as
| "morbid" would be incorrect.
| apt-apt-apt-apt wrote:
| Just watched his last stream that people were talking about on
| reddit, and his behavior was definitely strange. Saying random
| stuff then nodding off halfway, and being aggravated to put it
| simply.
| SubiculumCode wrote:
| I've watched so many of his videos..He always seemed like a great
| guys, and so brilliant. He also always seemed like he had a deep
| sadness about him. That has always been my impression, but of
| course just a personal impression. I don't know the cause of his
| death, but, of course I wonder.
| greedo wrote:
| I thought nothing could shock me this year, but Danya's death has
| shaken me to my core.
| CSMastermind wrote:
| That is heartbreaking.
|
| He was so incredibly kind and an amazing teacher.
|
| Apparently he did a stream where he looked pretty bad. It's too
| late to help Danya but if you ever see a friend in a bad place
| hopefully this reminds you to take action.
| sexyman48 wrote:
| I think all chess fans can recall Ivanchuk's recent mortifying
| defeat at Naroditsky's lightning-quick hands at World Blitz. Just
| goes to show no matter how devastating the loss, someone, perhaps
| even your vanquisher, is having an even harder time.
| freediver wrote:
| Reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_evi2X-PY0c
|
| I cried at the end too.
| greedo wrote:
| I (like many) started playing chess online during COVID and
| despite being too damn old, I wanted to see how high I could
| climb in ratings. Soon I found Danya, then Gotham, then IMRosen.
| All who loved this damn game so much. Even found I liked Hikaru
| though as an oldster, so many of his memes went over my head.
|
| I soon realized that no matter how hard I tried, I would never be
| ranked, and I was fine with that because lichess had become an
| outlet. An outlet from the horrors of COVID. An outlet from the
| shock of a brutal war in Europe. An outlet from my failing
| marriage. An outlet from the world turned upside down in the US.
| I could always find solace in a rapid game on lichess.
|
| Danya... I plateaued around 1400 and often found it hard to
| follow his gameplay on his speed runs. He was thinking 4-5 moves
| ahead while I was trying to avoid simple blunders. But Danya was
| easy to listen to, humble, and he helped instill a love in me of
| being very honest in my game evaluation. He also seemed like an
| incredibly charitable player; when it was obvious someone was
| cheating, he always gave them the benefit of the doubt, even when
| stockfish made it clear what was happening. His charity and
| kindness was endearing.
|
| The world is a much lesser place today.
| colechristensen wrote:
| You might not ever get titled, but a 1400 online is very much
| good enough to join your national chess federation and be
| middle of the pack competitive in local rated chess tournaments
| and the like.
| YZF wrote:
| Similar story. One of my new hobbies from Covid. Also maybe too
| damn old ;) Ben Finegold was my YouTube teacher for the most
| part. I'm still improving (a bit higher than you) and sometimes
| questioning my sanity of having spent so many hours playing
| chess online. It's an addiction ;)
|
| Danya seemed like a great person. Someone you'd want to hang
| out with. A great chess player for sure. I heard the news
| earlier and was filled with sadness. Such a loss.
| jakespencer wrote:
| He was my favorite chess player to watch online. It's been a few
| years since I watched a lot of chess, but he was the best. RIP
| hans0l074 wrote:
| A sad day for chess and chess fans around the world. I smiled
| when I saw this news posted here - Danya would have loved being
| among the nerds (I always saw him as one). I will never forget
| the final game, game 14 of WC2024 between Ding and Gukesh
| commentated by Peter Leko and Daniel. His reaction[1] at 4:18:40,
| when Ding blundered with Rf2 is priceless. [1]:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqA9mvyI0j4
| 3ple_alpha wrote:
| Even my local Swedish newspaper paid him respects. It may feel a
| bit better knowing that somewhere half way across the world,
| people knew him and considered him a celebrity.
| toomuchtodo wrote:
| Link to the tribute mentioned?
| cidd wrote:
| -deleted- might be fake news
| bigeatie wrote:
| I'm not seeing anything on Dubov's Facebook page since April
| 9th. Can you provide a link?
| cidd wrote:
| I am going to delete this in 5min because I also can't find
| any public sources about this.
| nomilk wrote:
| Can you provide the original (facebook) source? Because I
| can't even find that.
| nonethewiser wrote:
| >He was getting ready to stream when he felt uneasiness and
| nausea causing him to collapse.
|
| How could anyone possibly know this?
| janalsncm wrote:
| Really devastating. He was my favorite chess streamer and such a
| genuine person. I remember distinctly every time his opponent was
| suspected of cheating he was adamant in giving them the benefit
| of the doubt.
|
| No matter what we find out in the next few days, I wish
| authorities had taken Kramnik's cyber bullying more seriously.
| It's a stain on chess that this is allowed to continue.
|
| To take the conversation in a more technical direction, there are
| pretty clear parallels with "AI detector" technology which also
| could be (and I'm sure has been) life ruining. For both writing
| and chess, there are no authenticity detectors, only
| circumstantial evidence.
| y-curious wrote:
| Yes, Kramnik's BS was a large stressor on Danya and just a damn
| shame. Today is a dark day.
| John23832 wrote:
| Kramnik frankly has proven himself to be a POS. Even outside
| of this context. He's been baselessly accusing everyone of
| cheating for years.
| nonethewiser wrote:
| What the fuck
| yuvadam wrote:
| Literally yesterday my toddler son came into the room, saw me
| watching his last video - "You thought I was gone?! Speedrun
| returns!" - and asked me who that is.
|
| I told him his name is Danya and he teaches people how to play a
| game.
|
| </3
| beaker52 wrote:
| I am deeply saddened by Danya's passing. I'm not a massive chess
| player, but I regard him as one of the top 10 most awe inspiring
| individuals I've had the pleasure of witnessing through his YT
| channel. I was genuinely awed and impressed by the guy. As deeply
| as I am saddened, I am also angered by the context within which
| he has passed. Extremely angry. So extremely angry.
| Barrin92 wrote:
| Horrible news, he wasn't even 30 years old.
|
| There's something oddly devastating about seeing people pass away
| in these online communities. I've never been one to really be
| affected by celebrities passing away, but I remember a few years
| when Geoff Robinson died (who was active in the Starcraft scene)
| that one hit me surprisingly badly as well.
|
| Obviously it's banal in a sense because you always know people
| can die, but there's something very weird about seeing someone
| livestream one day and then you just get a headline like this on
| the next.
| nurettin wrote:
| I will just say it out loud. Kramnik bullied him to death. And
| no, I won't "define bullying".
| tromp wrote:
| Chess.com coverage at
| https://www.chess.com/news/view/grandmaster-daniel-naroditsk...
|
| ChessBase coverage at https://en.chessbase.com/post/daniel-
| naroditsky-1995-2
| michaelmarkell wrote:
| Danya was like the Mr. Rogers of chess. He had a way of making
| you feel accepted into the chess community even if you were a
| beginner, and was such a clear thinker. I strive to be more like
| him, and am devastated by this loss.
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