TWIC is 31. First issue 17th September 1994.Daniel Naroditsky (1995-2025)
Daniel Naroditsky 1995-2025
Mark Crowther - Tuesday 21st October 2025
The death of Daniel Naroditsky at the age of only 29 has come as a great shock. Naroditsky was a well known chess commentator and streamer who became a GM in 2013 and had a peak rating of 2647 in May 2017. His play was limited to mostly blitz in recent years, both online and over the board, although his fifth and final appearance in the US Championships was as recent as 2021.
Daniel Naroditsky (November 9, 1995 to October 19, 2025 was born in San Mateo, California. He learned chess at the age of six. In 2007 he won the World Youth U12 Championships. He qualified for the US Championships in 2011 with a high finish in the 2010 US Open.
Naroditsky became a GM in 2013 after GM norms in the Benasque Open, July 2011, Philadelphia Open 2013 and then the final one in a return to the Benasque Open in 2013.
A published author by age 14, Naroditsky released Mastering Positional Chess in 2010, followed by Mastering Complex Endgames in 2012, both published by New in Chess.
Naroditsky's chess activities were dominated with work online, streaming, commentating and playing blitz on chess.com. In 2024 Vladimir Kramnik accused him of cheating in online blitz events and the vituperative exchanges between them came to dominate his public life in the final year.
Naroditsky returned to online streaming after a long break just a few days ago and the resulting video called "You Thought I Was Gone!? Speedrun Returns!" was his final work. This was an edited version of a longer stream where he was at points visibly destressed and unwell and just before he finished he talked about the Kramnik allegations "ever since the Kramnik stuff, people assume the worst of intentions." before a friend advised him to stop streaming.
From 2020 to his death in 2025 he was the Grandmaster-in-Residence at the Charlotte Chess Center.
There were many heartfelt tributes to Naroditsky ("Danya" to his friends) on news of his passing from players such as Hikaru Nakamura and Benjamin Bok. I really enjoyed his work as a commentator as he was clear and articulate about the game.
