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.
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.
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.
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.)
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"
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.)
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...
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.
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.
Its definitely normal to wonder "what happened?"
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.
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.
I would prefer you refer to it as "courtesy" or "consideration" rather than "freedom".
its not mórbid wanting to know if a Young person commited suicide
morbid curiosity literally curiosity about disease and death
I'm not sure what you think "morbid" means.
"Morbid" indicates that the curiosity about disease and death is unhealthy.
Describing a university course on infectious disease as "morbid" would be incorrect.
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.
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.
Yes, Kramnik’s BS was a large stressor on Danya and just a damn shame. Today is a dark day.
Kramnik frankly has proven himself to be a POS. Even outside of this context. He's been baselessly accusing everyone of cheating for years.
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!
Kramnick.
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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
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.
Link to the tribute mentioned?
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.
I thought nothing could shock me this year, but Danya's death has shaken me to my core.
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.
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
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.
Reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_evi2X-PY0c
I cried at the end too.
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.
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.
RIP the great RebeccaHarris :(
This makes me so tremendously sad. Danya was one of the biggest blessings to the online chess community.
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.
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
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.
> 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.
This is shocking, I have no words. The poor guy.
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.
Are you sure? I think the statement said he was a son.
You are right, sorry about that. I can't read today. I deleted that part.
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.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Naroditsky
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
> "if true"
To swiftly terminate that thread, it is not a hoax; his North Carolina friend Oleksandr Bortnyk confirmed it on his video stream.
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
Several years ago he taught kids locally in the Bay Area. Very sad to see someone go that's so young.
Shocking to hear this news. I used to watch Danya's videos a lot... RIP
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...
He was such a great teacher and player. Absolutely loved his videos. He seemed like such a wholesome positive person, this is very sad.
I will just say it out loud. Kramnik bullied him to death. And no, I won't "define bullying".
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.
He was such a great guy. Wholesome. What a loss.
What the fuck
-deleted- might be fake news
>He was getting ready to stream when he felt uneasiness and nausea causing him to collapse.
How could anyone possibly know this?
I'm not seeing anything on Dubov's Facebook page since April 9th. Can you provide a link?
I am going to delete this in 5min because I also can't find any public sources about this.
Can you provide the original (facebook) source? Because I can't even find that.