Daniel Naroditsky, pioneering chess grandmaster, dies at 29

Daniel Naroditsky, a chess prodigy turned grandmaster who helped bring the centuries-old game into the digital age through livestreams and online lessons, has died at 29.

Naroditsky was considered one of the most influential voices in modern chess after building a major following on YouTube and Twitch, where thousands watched his educational videos. 

He won the Under-12 world championship before becoming a grandmaster at 18 — the game’s highest title short of world champion.

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Naroditsky, the son of Jewish immigrants to the U.S. from Ukraine and Azerbaijan, also authored strategy books as a teenager, becoming one of the youngest published chess authors at age 14, releasing “Mastering Positional Chess.” He was born and raised in San Mateo County, California.

The Charlotte Chess Center in North Carolina, where Naroditsky trained and worked as a coach, called him “a talented chess player, educator, and beloved member of the chess community.” 

“Let us remember Daniel for his passion and love for the game of chess, and for the joy and inspiration he brought to us all every day,” his family said in a statement shared by the center. The cause of death was not immediately known.

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Naroditsky’s top scalp in world chess was in 2021 when he defeated Fabiano Caruana, as World No. 2 and the reigning U.S. Champion.

He consistently ranked in the top 200 worldwide for traditional chess and excelled at a fast-paced style called blitz chess, maintaining a top 25 ranking throughout his adult career. Most recently, Naroditsky, known to many as Danya, won the U.S. National Blitz Championship in August.

Naroditsky is credited with introducing the professional chess world and a new generation of online fans discovering the game for the first time through thousands of livestreams and tutorials.

Fellow grandmasters credited Naroditsky with introducing the sport to a wider audience by livestreaming many of his matches and sharing live commentary on others. Thousands of people regularly tuned in on YouTube and the interactive streaming platform Twitch to watch Naroditsky play.

“He loved streaming, and he loved trying to be educational. The chess world is very grateful,” Hikaru Nakamura, an American grandmaster, said on a livestream Monday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.