American chess grandmaster and online commentator Daniel Naroditsky has died at the age of 29.
The popular chess player’s family announced his “unexpected” death in a statement released on Monday (20) by the Charlotte Chess Center, the club to which he was linked. The cause of death was not reported.
“It is with great sadness that we share the unexpected death of Daniel Naroditsky,” the note reads. “Daniel was an accomplished chess player, commentator and educator, a beloved member of the chess community, admired and respected by fans and players around the world.”
The international and American chess federations, as well as other professional players, paid tribute to Naroditsky.
American player Hikaru Nakamura, number two in the world rankings, said he was “devastated” by the news.
“This is an immense loss for the chess world,” Nakamura wrote on his social media profile.
Naroditsky became interested in chess at the age of six, when his older brother Alan introduced him to the game when he was trying to entertain a group of children at a birthday party.
His father, Vladimir, and several coaches soon noticed his talent.
“As far back as I can remember, I was just playing games with my brother,” Naroditsky said in an interview with The New York Times in 2022.
He attracted international attention in 2007 when he won the under-12 World Youth Championship in Antalya, Turkey. In 2010, at the age of 14, he became one of the youngest authors of chess books when he published Mastering Positional Chesswork on practical skills and technical maneuvers.
In 2013, Naroditsky won the United States Youth Championship, an achievement that helped him earn the title of Grandmaster (GM), the highest in the International Chess Federation (Fide), when he was still a teenager.
Later, Naroditsky graduated from Stanford University (USA) and worked as a chess coach in Charlotte, North Carolina (USA).
While still competing in high-level tournaments, he took his talents to the world of online chess.
His YouTube channel has gained around 500,000 subscribers, and his streams on the Twitch platform have amassed 340,000 followers, with hundreds of thousands of viewers drawn to his video lessons and live matches against other gamers. Fans praised his clarity and enthusiasm, calling him by the nickname “Danya.”
In 2022, The New York Times announced Naroditsky as its “chess columnist” and invited him to contribute a series of chess challenges for the paper’s games section.
In the interview that accompanied the publication, the young grandmaster reflected on the influence of chess on his life.
“Even at my level, I can still discover beautiful things about chess every time I play, coach, teach or comment on a tournament,” he said.
According to Fide, “beyond the board, Naroditsky played a crucial role in popularizing online chess content, bridging the gap between professional and amateur chess.”
As he told the New York Times in 2022, “at the end of the game, both the king and the pawn go into the same box.”
This text was originally published here.
