Obituary: GM Daniel Naroditsky (1995-2025)

Grandmaster Daniel Naroditsky, one of America's brightest young chess players and a leading content creator of the past 5 years has died at his home in Charlotte NC on October 19th, 2025. No cause of death has been specified.

Tributes poured in from across the chess world as shock permeated the community, including at the ongoing US Championship in Saint Louis, a competition which Naroditsky played several times in the past, with his last appearance 2021. Visibly distraught after Chief Arbiter Chris Bird's announcement before Round 8, many appeared shaken and struggled to focus on their games after such a tragic announcement. At the time of his death, Naroditsky was affiliated with the Charlotte Chess Club in North Carolina, where he had been residing after graduating from Stanford University with a Bachelor's Degree in History.

Born on 9 November 1995 to a Ukrainian immigrant father and an Azerbaijani mother in San Mateo, California, Daniel Naroditsky quickly became one of the prodigious chess talents of the SF Bay Area. He first eclipsed the 2000 USCF rating at a tournament in Berkeley in 2006 and never looked back. He became a NM in October 2007, and just a month later at the World Youth Chess Championship in Antalya (Turkey), he shocked the 161-player field by winning the Gold medal on tiebreaks in the U12 category, despite starting as a 13th seed. This qualified him for the direct title of FIDE Master. He later became an IM in 2011 and a GM in 2013. Naroditsky peaked at 2733 USCF and 2646 FIDE, placing him firmly as a consistent top 10 US player and close to the top 100 in the world.

His biggest success remains his top-10 finish in the FIDE World Blitz Championship 2024, held in New York City, where he narrowly missed a qualification to the top 8 knockout stage. Notorious for his love of faster time controls, Naroditsky would often fill his break time during commentary assignments by playing quick games against fellow top players. In his last public tweet, dated 29 Sept 2025, Naroditsky complained sarcastically to FIDE over the recent adjustments to his official blitz rating. One of the most memorable experiences involving Naroditsky happened at the Candidates Tournament in Madrid 2022, when Alireza Firouzja, a player in the tournament, challenged Naroditsky, filling the role of commentator, to an online hyperbullet match of 250 games that extended way into the wee hours of the morning. That match finished well past 5 am local time and was played on Lichess.

Nicknamed Danya by his fellow competitors, streamers, and fans alike, Naroditsky quickly established himself as a leading content creator during the pandemic years of 2020-2021. At the time of his death, Danya amassed no fewer than 492k subscribers on YouTube and 340k followers on Twitch. His content became a staple recommendation for new players, whereupon his calm explanations reflected a rare sincerity in a digital age driven by monetization and clickbait. Admittedly, despite never crossing paths with him in person, I felt a sense of sorrow upon hearing the news and saw him as an esteemed colleague.

Despite showing a strong affinity to chess from a young age, Naroditsky had diverse interests. His excellent book Mastering Positional Chess was published in 2010, with a young Naroditsky impressing through his mastery of the English language, despite it technically being his second language. Throughout the years, Naroditsky exhibited the unique talent of imitating people's accents and inflections, which he would often do as a way to lighten the mood even on official tournament broadcasts. Moreover, Danya was one of the few GMs who would engage publicly on Reddit, where he often voiced his unabashed opinions using complex language.

Danya's top-rated classical win was with black against 2800-rated Fabiano Caruana in the 2021 US Championship. There, he singlehandedly revived the Delayed Steinitz variation of the Ruy Lopez, scoring an important victory with black in round 5 of the competition. One moment of carelessness on Caruana's part was enough. After 29. Nc3? Naroditsky took over the initiative and converted the B vs N endgame with precision.

Apart from his educational contributions as a streamer and author, Naroditsky was also considered a pioneer of the Jobava London system with white, as well as a champion of the King's Indian Defense with black. In particular, he was very adept at navigating the multiple sidelines that white could throw at black in the KID, and his foremost theoretical contribution in recent years is attempting to neutralize the daft Makogonov variation with an early plan based on Nbd7, h5, Bh6, trading white's good bishop and not committing to an early kingside castle. The line goes 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. h3 Nbd7 6. Be3 e5 7. d5 h5.

Danya embodied the spirit of the saying "Gens Una Sumus" more than anyone. His love for chess transcended platforms. Despite being in an exclusive contractual agreement with Chess.com over much of his professional career as a lead commentator, Danya bridged the gap between the two platforms, having played multiple editions of the Lichess Titled Arena, with his last appearance a week ago. Under his username RebeccaHarris he had amassed 16k games.

The chess world mourns Daniel ‘Danya’ Naroditsky, a teacher, competitor, and friend of the game, gone too soon. He is survived by his mother, Lena Schuman, as well as his brother, Alan Naroditsky.