Daniel Naroditsky: Difference between revisions

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American chess grandmaster (1995–2025)

Daniel Naroditsky (November 9, 1995 – October 19, 2025), often referred to as Danya, was an American chess grandmaster, author, and commentator. He won the Under 12 section of the World Youth Chess Championship in 2007 and the US Junior Championship in 2013, the same year he was officially awarded the grandmaster title at age 18.

While Naroditsky was consistently in the top 200 of FIDE‘s world rankings for classical chess, he was more proficient in faster time formats such as blitz chess, in which he was consistently ranked top 25 in the world. He tied for first in the swiss-stage of the World Blitz Chess Championship 2024, but failed to advance to the playoffs on tiebreakers. Naroditsky also made educational chess content on YouTube and Twitch, published two chess books, and wrote columns for Chess Life and The New York Times.

Chess career

Born in San Mateo, California, on November 9, 1995,[2][3] Naroditsky learned chess at age six from his father.[4]

In November 2007, Naroditsky won the Under 12 section of the World Youth Chess Championship with 9½/11, tying with Illya Nyzhnyk and winning the gold medal on tiebreaks.[5][6] His win meant that he instantly qualified as a FIDE Master. At the time, he was a member of the Mechanics’ Institute Chess Club.[7][8]

In February 2010, Naroditsky became the youngest published chess author upon the release of Mastering Positional Chess: Practical Lessons of a Junior World Champion by New In Chess.[9] At the 2010 U.S. Open, Naroditsky scored 7½/9 to share second place with Alexander Shabalov, Varuzhan Akobian, and Julio Sadorra, but behind Alejandro Ramírez. This qualified him for the 2011 U.S. Championship. Naroditsky competed in the 2011, 2012, and 2013 US Junior Championships, winning clear first place in 2013 with 6.5/9, ahead of Samuel Sevian and Luke Harmon-Vellotti.[10] The 2013 victory qualified him for the 2014 US Championship.[11]

Naroditsky playing in the Groningen Chess Festival 2012.

Naroditsky earned his first grandmaster norm at the Benasque Open in July 2011.[12] He earned his second grandmaster norm at the 2013 Philadelphia Open by tying for first place with Fidel Corrales Jimenez.[13] He earned his final grandmaster norm at the 2013 Benasque Open.[14] Naroditsky was officially awarded the grandmaster title in 2013.[15]

In 2014, Naroditsky was awarded the Samford Chess Fellowship.[16]
Later that year, he tied for fifth place in the Millionaire Chess Open in Las Vegas.[17] In 2015, Naroditsky represented the United States at the World Team Championship, where he scored 4.0/7, defeating Dmitry Jakovenko and Evgeny Postny, but losing to Hrant Melkumyan. He finished with a performance rating of 2640.[18]

Naroditsky played in the 2011, 2014, 2015, 2017, and 2021 U.S. Championships. In the 2021 U.S. Championship, he defeated Fabiano Caruana who was rated 2800 FIDE and ranked #2 in the World.[19] In 2019, Naroditsky tied for first place at the U.S. Masters Championship.[20]

He played on Chess.com under the handle DanielNaroditsky,[21] and on Lichess.org under the handle RebeccaHarris.[22] He frequently ranked at the top of both websites’ leaderboards in Blitz and Bullet. His peak bullet rating on Chess.com was 3553, and peak bullet rating on Lichess.org was 3326.[23][24]

By FIDE ratings, Naroditsky was consistently ranked in the top 200 in the World and top 15 in the U.S. in Classical, top 75 in Rapid, and top 25 in Blitz.[1] In August 2024, Naroditsky crossed 2700 FIDE Blitz rating for the first time.[1]

In 2024, Naroditsky was accused by former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik of cheating in online chess. Naroditsky rejected the allegations, referring to Kramnik as “worse than dirt”, although he also indicated that he felt other top players had similar suspicions about him. He was defended by fellow content creator GM Hikaru Nakamura.[25][26]

In December 2024, Naroditsky tied for first place in the Swiss portion of the 2024 World Blitz Chess Championship with a score of 9.5/13 and performance rating of 2749, finishing 9th place on tiebreaks but failing to advance to the 8-player knockout stage.[27] As of August 2025, his FIDE blitz rating was currently 2732, ranking #18 in the World and #6 in the US.[28] In August 2025, Naroditsky won the US National Blitz Championship with a score of 14/14.[29]

Writing and other activities

Naroditsky published the books Mastering Positional Chess in 2010, and Mastering Complex Endgames in 2012. He wrote The Practical Endgame, a column in Chess Life Magazine,[30] from 2014 to 2020.

In 2022, Naroditsky wrote a series of 19 columns featuring chess puzzles based on historical games for The New York Times.[31][32]

From 2020 to 2025, he was the Grandmaster-in-Residence of the Charlotte Chess Center.[33] Naroditsky was an active content creator on YouTube and Twitch, where he has over 486,000 subscribers and 340,000 followers, respectively.[34][35]

Personal life and death

Naroditsky’s parents are Jewish emigrants from the former Soviet Union. His father, Vladimir, emigrated from Ukraine, while his mother Lena came from Azerbaijan.[36] Naroditsky attended high school at Crystal Springs Uplands School in Hillsborough, California.[37] He attended Stanford University until 2019, studying history.[38] In 2020, he moved to Charlotte, North Carolina.[31][39][40]

On October 20, 2025, the Charlotte Chess Center announced that Naroditsky had died unexpectedly on October 19.[41][42][43] After his death, fellow American grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura described Naroditsky as a trailblazer in bringing chess to a live streaming audience.[44]

Books

References

  1. ^ a b c “Profile Info – Naroditsky, Daniel”. FIDE. Archived from the original on March 15, 2021. Retrieved December 11, 2020.
  2. ^ Naroditsky, Daniel (July 16, 2015). Mastering Positional Chess. New In Chess. ISBN 978-90-5691-310-6.
  3. ^ Murtagh, Heather (December 6, 2017). “Local youth wins chess championship”. San Mateo Daily Journal. Retrieved June 16, 2022.
  4. ^ Dinic, Milan. “Daniel Naroditsky (1995 – 2025)”. International Chess Federation. Retrieved October 20, 2025.
  5. ^ “Chess-Results Server Chess-results.com – World Youth Championship 2007 (12)”. chess-results.com. Archived from the original on May 26, 2023. Retrieved May 26, 2023.
  6. ^ “World Youth Chess Championships 2007 – Home”. November 18, 2017. Archived from the original on November 18, 2017.
  7. ^ “World Youth Championship – and the winners are…” Chessbase. November 28, 2007. Retrieved October 20, 2025.
  8. ^ “Trophies Plus All-America Team”. United States Chess Federation. March 31, 2010. Retrieved October 20, 2025.
  9. ^ “Trophies Plus All-America Team”. United States Chess Federation. March 31, 2010. Retrieved October 20, 2025.
  10. ^ “US Chess MSA – Cross Table for 2013 U.S. JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIP (Event 201306238562)”.
  11. ^ Dudnick, Laura (June 28, 2013). “Foster City Teen Wins U.S. Junior Chess Championship”. Patch Media. Retrieved October 20, 2025.
  12. ^ “Chess-Results Server Chess-results.com – XXXI OPEN INT. “VILLA DE BENASQUE”“. chess-results.com. Archived from the original on May 26, 2023. Retrieved May 26, 2023.
  13. ^ “Philadelphia Open 2013 Standings – Open Section”. CCA Chess Tournaments. Archived from the original on May 5, 2013.
  14. ^ “Chess-Results Server Chess-results.com – XXXIII OPEN INTERNACIONAL “VILLA DE BENASQUE” (77340)”. chess-results.com. Archived from the original on May 26, 2023. Retrieved May 26, 2023.
  15. ^ “Naroditsky, Daniel FIDE Profile”. International Chess Federation. Retrieved October 20, 2025.
  16. ^ “2014 Samford Fellow: GM Daniel Naroditsky”. US Chess. John Donaldson. Retrieved January 27, 2015.
  17. ^ “2014 Millionaire Chess Open – Open Section November 2014 United States of America”. FIDE. Archived from the original on January 2, 2022. Retrieved November 28, 2014.
  18. ^ Herzog, Heinz. “World Team Championship 2015”. Chess-Tournament-Results-Server. Retrieved October 20, 2025.
  19. ^ “Fabiano Caruana vs Daniel Naroditsky (2021)”. Archived from the original on May 27, 2023. Retrieved May 26, 2023.
  20. ^ “The U.S. Masters: Logjam at the Top – US Chess”. Archived from the original on December 8, 2019. Retrieved August 18, 2025.
  21. ^ “GM Daniel Naroditsky (DanielNaroditsky) – Chess Profile”. Archived from the original on May 30, 2024. Retrieved February 11, 2021.
  22. ^ “Magnus Carlsen wins third consecutive Lichess Titled Arena”. Lichess. March 2, 2018. Archived from the original on July 30, 2021. Retrieved July 30, 2021.
  23. ^ “DanielNaroditsky Blitz Chess Stats and Rating”.
  24. ^ “RebeccaHarris – Bullet stats • lichess.org”. lichess.org. Archived from the original on March 18, 2024. Retrieved May 26, 2023.
  25. ^ “‘Worse than dirt’: Daniel Naroditsky hits back at Vladimir Kramnik over ‘cheating’ allegation”. timesofindia.indiatimes.com. Times of India. December 31, 2024. Archived from the original on March 9, 2025. Retrieved March 7, 2025.
  26. ^ “Vladimir Kramnik is worse than dirt: Daniel Naroditsky”. indianexpress.com. The Indian Express. December 31, 2024. Archived from the original on March 7, 2025. Retrieved March 7, 2025.
  27. ^ “Chess-Results Server Chess-results.com – FIDE Open World Blitz Championships 2024”. s2.chess-results.com.
  28. ^ “FIDE World Top Chess players”. International Chess Federation (FIDE). Archived from the original on December 1, 2021. Retrieved January 5, 2025.
  29. ^ “US Chess MSA – Cross Table for 2025 US National Blitz Championship (Event 202508025802)”. www.uschess.org.
  30. ^ “US Chess Celebrates Its Award-Winning Journalists”. United States Chess Federation. August 11, 2017. Retrieved September 11, 2021.
  31. ^ a b Amlen, Deb (June 12, 2022). “Meet The Times’s New Chess Columnist”. The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 8, 2023. Retrieved June 13, 2022.
  32. ^ “Chess Puzzles”. The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 28, 2024. Retrieved September 29, 2023.
  33. ^ “DANIEL NARODITSKY”. CCC. Archived from the original on January 26, 2024. Retrieved January 26, 2024.
  34. ^ “Daniel Naroditsky”. YouTube. Archived from the original on May 11, 2024. Retrieved February 5, 2024.
  35. ^ “GMNaroditsky – Twitch”. Archived from the original on January 14, 2024. Retrieved February 5, 2024 – via www.twitch.tv.
  36. ^ Pine, Dan (April 7, 2006). “10-year-old-chess-champ-is-king-of-the-board”. J. Archived from the original on September 12, 2021.
  37. ^ Weil, Elizabeth (November 19, 2022). “Wait, But Weren’t His Parents Law Professors? The Stanford genius bubble that birthed SBF”. New York Magazine. Archived from the original on November 21, 2022. Retrieved September 17, 2023.
  38. ^ https://www.charlottechesscenter.org/staff Archived April 23, 2024, at the Wayback Machine Charlotte Chess Center Staff Page
  39. ^ Pine, Dan (April 7, 2006). “10-year-old-chess-champ-is-king-of-the-board”. Jewish News of Northern California. Archived from the original on September 12, 2021.
  40. ^ “Daniel Naroditsky – Bio & Stats”. chess.com. Archived from the original on May 24, 2024. Retrieved June 20, 2024.
  41. ^ “Charlotte Chess Club Announcement”. Retrieved October 20, 2025.
  42. ^ Svensen (TarjeiJS), Tarjei J. (October 20, 2025). “Grandmaster Daniel Naroditsky Passes Away At 29”. Chess.com. Retrieved October 20, 2025.
  43. ^ Petri, Alexandra E. (October 20, 2025). “Daniel Naroditsky, Chess Grandmaster, Dies at 29”. New York Times. Retrieved October 20, 2025.
  44. ^ Massimo, Rick (October 20, 2025). “GM Daniel Naroditsky (1995-2025)”. United States Chess Federation. Retrieved October 20, 2025.

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