Daniel Naroditsky, American chess grandmaster, dies at age 29

American chess grandmaster and online commentator Daniel Naroditsky has died at the age of 29.

The family of the famous chess player announced his “unexpected” death in a statement released Monday by his club, the Charlotte Chess Center. No cause of death was given.

“It is with great sadness that we share the unexpected passing of Daniel Naroditsky,” the statement said. “Daniel was a talented chess player, commentator and educator, and a valuable member of the chess community, admired and respected by fans and players around the world.”

American and international chess federations have paid tribute to Naroditsky, as well as other professional players.

American world number two Hikaru Nakamura said he was “devastated” by the news.

“This is a huge loss for the chess world,” Nakamura said in a social media post.

In addition to competing in high-profile events, Naroditsky ran a chess YouTube channel, with nearly 500,000 subscribers.

His Twitch stream has attracted 340,000 subscribers, with hundreds of thousands of viewers drawn to his regular video tutorials and live streams against his competitors. Fans praised her insight and passion, casually calling her “Danya.”

He played a “central role in popularizing chess content online,” the International Chess Federation said.

Naroditsky first became interested in chess at the age of six, when his older brother Alan introduced him to the game to help entertain a group of children at a birthday party.

His father Vladimir and several coaches quickly noticed his talents.

“As far as I was concerned, I was just playing games with my brother,” Naroditsky told The New York Times in a 2022 interview.

He gained international attention in 2007 when he won the under-12 world junior championship in Antalya, Turkey. In 2010, at the age of 14, he became one of the youngest chess authors ever published when he wrote a book called Mastering Positional Chess, covering practical skills and technical maneuvers.

In 2013, Naroditsky won the United States Junior Championship, earning him the title of grandmaster, the highest-ranked competitor in the International Chess Federation, while still a teenager.

Naroditsky later graduated from Stanford University and worked as a chess coach in Charlotte, North Carolina.

In 2022, The New York Times named Naroditsky as its “new chess columnist” and invited him to contribute a series of chess puzzles for the newspaper’s games section.

In the interview that accompanies the publication, the young grandmaster reflects on the influence of chess in his life.

“Even at my level, I can still discover great things about the game every time I train, teach, play or commentate on a tournament,” he said.

Nemo Zhou – a Toronto-based female chess grandmaster (WGM) and chess content creator – told the BBC that Naroditsky was a friend and an “inspiration”.

Zhou played chess with him, both in person and virtually at chess events across the United States.

He was “everything the combination of chess and content creation was supposed to be — he had this way of making chess fun,” she said.

She added that he was known to be a “true historian of the game”, with a great memory for chess facts and historical games, and “does everything with kindness”.

“Without people like him, I probably would have quit chess at 17 and never touched it again,” she said.