Daniel Naroditsky's death: Russian grandmaster alleges foul play, suspects drug abuse

American chess grandmaster Daniel Naroditsky's family has not yet revealed the cause of the American chess grandmaster's death.

American chess grandmaster Daniel Naroditsky, former world youth champion and a popular commentator, unexpectedly died at the age of 29, his family said in a statement on Monday.

Vladimir Kramnik alleged that in the past few streams, Naroditsky appeared unstable. (X)

The statement released by Naroditsky's club, the Charlotte Chess Center, on X said, "It is with great sadness that we share the unexpected passing of Daniel Naroditsky."

"Daniel was a talented chess player, commentator, and educator, and a cherished member of the chess community, admired and respected by fans and players around the world. He was also a loving son and brother, and a loyal friend to many," the statement added.

The cause of death has not been revealed yet.

Born in California in 1995, Naroditsky as one of the most recognizable chess players of the US and was fondly known as 'Danya' within the community. He became a grandmaster in 2013.

Additionally, he also finished ninth in the blitz world championship last year, Reuters reported. Naroditsky was widely known for his role as a commentator, writer, and online educator. He also streamed regularly on platforms like YouTube and Twitch.

Russian grandmaster alleges foul play, ‘drug’ abuse

A fellow chess player and Russian grandmaster Vladimir Kramnik, who previously accused Naroditsky of cheating, shared screenshots of a private message sent by a viewer who had watched the American grandmaster's final stream.

The message seemingly expressed concern over Naroditsky's state and suspected if he had consumed some drugs.

"Danya streaming. Looks like he is on some serious drugs. Quite worried, chess mafia is dangerous," the three texts read.

Kramnik posted the screenshot on X on Tuesday and raised suspicion over Naroditsky's sudden death. He said, "What exactly happened? Because I received this two days ago from a friend of mine chess fan, and at least did what I could to warn people to do something urgently in my posts. To those who prefer blaming and shaming, instead of helping. Awful tragedy, hope properly investigated."

By saying "did what I could to warn people", Kramnik was referring to a series of posts he had made in the last couple of days regarding Naroditsky's seemingly unstable appearance on his stream episodes.

In a separate post on Tuesday, Kramnik added, "Too high price paid, but if I was the only person shouting about obvious long term problems of Danya becoming alarming, requiring urgent measures from people around, while "friends" only cared about hiding it and erase evidence, its rotten to the core."

Again, in another post on Monday, the Russian grandmaster alleged that it seemed that Naroditsky's conflicts with Chess.com, described as the "world's largest chess community", and the Freestyle Chess Cup, lately had a big impact on the American grandmaster.

Kramnik alleged that both these clubs had "kicked" Naroditsky's put from a commentator role.

"Got the stream episodes. Not a doctor but looks like something "very else" than sleeping pills. Hope, if any, real friends of him will care," he added.

On Sunday, Kramnik cited comments about Naroditsky's final stream. He claimed that after noticing people's remarks about the "strange" stream, he went again on Twitch to check the clips, only to find "many things erased".

According to Kramnik, all of Naroditsky's videos from Twitch and a thread about it were a "recognisable working style". He added, "Anyone, what happened, that forced them to act in a rush?"

He said referred to "they" and said usually the 'cleaning' wouldn't take place in such a rush. "Normally they don't "clean" in such a rush (although erasing materials from internet is "their" trademark, not on web means never happened), must be something quite interesting I think," Kramnik said.

He alleged that in today's world of chess, people pretend that there are no problems and merely care about looking good.

"All in all, typical nowadays world of chess, the only thing everyone cares about is "looking great" and pretending there are no issues. Even if its about long term major problems. Stop this doublefaced hypocries for once, and try helping to solve them. Image is NOT everything," Kramnik said in his final post of the thread.

On October 18, Kramnik had shared a poster, calling for "Don't Do Drugs".