Chess enthusiasts and players rushed to pay tribute to 29-year-old grandmaster Daniel Naroditsky on Tuesday, following the shock news of his death the previous evening.
The eloquent chess celebrity had issued a YouTube video after a few weeks’ hiatus just days before the news of his unexpected passing, with few signs of anything being amiss except perhaps for the playful title which began: “You thought I was gone!?”
‘A genuinely nice person. A life gone too soon.’
The Charlotte Chess Center where Naroditsky was based shared the news of his death, noting that his family asked for privacy and was not commenting on the cause.
“Daniel was a talented chess player, educator, and beloved member of the chess community,” Naroditsky’s home club said.
“RIP my great friend Daniel Naroditsky, I still can’t believe,” Charlotte’s other speed chess superstar, Ukrainian grandmaster Olexandr Bortnyk wrote.
The Kasparov Chess Foundation set up by former world champion Garry Kasparov also mourned the passing of “one of the brightest stars to emerge from our programs.”
It shared an image of a young Naroditsky, in the spotlight since a very early age as a chess prodigy, training with Kasparov.
“Danya’s talent, creativity, and love for chess inspired everyone who knew him, from students to fellow competitors,” the foundation wrote.
Indian former world champion Viswanathan Anand, another legend of the game who Naroditsky liked to verbally impersonate on air, said that the chess world would miss his presence.
“Really shocked at the passing away of GM Daniel Naroditsky. An excellent chess commentator and educator. A genuinely nice person. A life gone too soon,” Anand wrote online.
Prodigy, commentator, YouTuber
Born in California to emigres from the former Soviet Union, his mother from what’s now Ukraine and his father from Azerbaijan, Naroditsky was among the leading players of his generation growing up.
He was also a prodigious young talent on the page, and by the age of just 14 in 2010, he became chess’ youngest ever published author with the release of Mastering Positional Chess: Practical Lessons of a Junior World Champion. In the same year, finishing joint second in the US Open qualified Naroditsky for the seniors’ US chess championship.
Although Naroditsky at one point looked like a viable future contender for world champion, he never quite broke into chess’ very top tier, except in short time-control formats like rapid, blitz and bullet chess, where most considered him one of the best players on the planet.
Instead, Naroditsky blossomed during his 20s into one of the game’s leading broadcast and online voices.
He regularly featured as a commentator for top tournaments, gathered almost half a million subscribers to his YouTube channel, which specialized in in-depth advice for intermediate or advanced players trying to improve, and worked as a columnist for The New York Times. He also demonstrated a lively sense of humor throughout, becoming well known for his enthusiastic impersonations of chess celebrities, not least his childhood mentor Kasparov.
International Master Levy Rozman, better known by his YouTube handle “GothamChess,” issued a heartfelt video homage to his fellow online chess educator, saying “Danya could explain the game to an ant.”
The International Chess Federation FIDE also noted Naroditsky’s role promoting the game in recent years in its tribute.
“Beyond the chessboard, Naroditsky played a pivotal role in popularizing chess content online, bridging the gap between professional and amateur chess,” FIDE wrote in his obituary. “There are not many people in the world who manage to achieve so much before turning 30. Grandmaster Daniel Naroditsky will forever be among them.”
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