This was one game he couldn’t win.
Daniel Naroditsky, one of the world’s greatest chess players, was a child prodigy who went on to become America’s greatest ambassador for the sport — before baseless allegations of cheating from his childhood hero broke his mental health months before he was found dead in his North Carolina home.
The 29-year-old was found unconscious on his couch on Sunday evening by fellow Grandmaster Oleksandr Bortnyk, who had gone to check on him after losing contact, the chess ace told a Twitch live stream on Monday.
Bortnyk, 29, said he let himself in after seeing the television was on, where he found Naroditsky’s lifeless body and called 911.
No cause of death has been given yet by cops, who are investigating it as a possible suicide or drug overdose, according to a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD) incident report seen by The Post.
Naroditsky’s family described him as “a talented chess player, commentator, and educator, and a cherished member of the chess community, admired and respected by fans and players around the world,” in a statement put out on Monday by Charlotte Chess Center, where he had worked as a coach since 2019.
Child prodigy
Born and raised in the Bay Area to Jewish parents from the former Soviet Union — his father from Ukraine and his mother from Azerbaijan — Naroditsky was introduced to chess by his brother and dad when he was 6..
Just five years later, he became the Northern California K-12 champion and, at 14, he wrote his first book on the game, the Charlotte Observer reported.
At 17, he became a grandmaster — the highest possible rank in chess other than world champion — and after graduating from Stanford with a degree in history, he moved to North Carolina, where his friend, Peter Giannatos, had founded the Charlotte Chess Center.
“We were kind of the few crazy people that would teach chess all day, and then stay up until like 2 a.m., playing blitz chess and ping pong in the staff lounge, knowing that we’d have to get up again the next day and go teach at like, 8 a.m.,” Giannatos told Queens News Service in an April, 2022 interview.
Naroditsky flourished in the Queen City, where he found a thriving chess scene and made friends easily.
“Most cities have a lot of people who like chess, because there’s just a lot of people who like chess,” he told Queens News Service in the same 2022 piece.
“But most places don’t have an outlet to express that. You know, there’s a chess center, that’s sort of impeccable in every way,” he added.
Chess hero
Naroditsky grew up idolizing Vladimir Kramnik, 50, the former world champion between 2000 and 2006, and the two were even pictured together at a chess tournament when he was a child.
But when Kramnik began accusing his prodigy — and other players — of cheating to win online chess games, Naroditsky was crushed, according to his friend, US international chess master Levy Rozman.
Calling out Kramnik’s “rampant attacks” on other players in the wake of Naroditsky’s death, Rozman added, “this has to stop,” in a video shared on Reddit on Wednesday.
Naroditsky’s grieving mother, Elena, also described the mental anguish that the cheating allegations had on her son.
“There was nothing more important to Daniel than his dignity and his name as a chess player. And the ex-world champion was trying to say he was a cheater,” she told the Daily Mail.
“Daniel tried to defend himself so much,” she added. “He played more and did more and more because he was trying to prove that he’s not what he was accused of.”
Even before this week’s tragic events, Kramnik has been slammed for allegedly making baseless accusations against fellow players — and was banned from the world’s largest online chess platform, Chess.com, as a result.
“Over the past several years, we have suspended Mr. Kramnik multiple times from our site for his repeated violations of our community policy. Despite our many warnings, he continued to push baseless conspiracy theories about other players,” a spokesperson told The Post.
And Kramnik is now subject to a possible probe from the world governing body of chess over the potential harassment and bullying of Naroditsky.
Kramnik has denied any responsibility for Naroditsky’s death — and laments he is the victim in this week’s tragedy.
“I had much more severe attacks, death threats for my family as well, on top of permanent, continuous defamation publications, and, well, just insults,” he told The Post from his home in Switzerland. “I received, since last two days, dozens of direct death threats.”
He also insisted he is willing to work with authorities in Charlotte and get to the bottom of what he called “really strange” happenings around the death.
“Some things [that] were really strange were happening. The fact that all [Naroditsky’s] videos on his Twitch channel were erased like a few hours before his death,” Kramnik said.
“I spoke with my lawyers already, they will try to contact the police department in Charlotte, to try to ask them for an investigation,” he added.
Kramnik also repeated his allegations that Naroditsky may have been on drugs.
In his final stream, the US ace appeared exhausted and distracted, his voice breaking at times as he described the accusations made against him by Kramnik.
It isn’t known whether Kramnik followed through on his promise to work with the police.
“CMPD will not speculate as this is an active and ongoing investigation,” a CMPD spokesperson told The Post.
Tributes paid
While uncertainty and mystery still swirl around his death, Naroditsky is chiefly being remembered as an incredible chess ambassador, one credited with introducing the sport to a far wider audience by livestreaming his matches and sharing live commentary.
Thousands tuned in regularly on YouTube and streaming platform Twitch to watch the consummate showman play quickfire games of “blitz” chess, sometimes even while blindfolded.
The Kasparov Chess Foundation, set up by former world champion Garry Kasparov, described Naroditsky as “one of the brightest stars to emerge from our programs,” in a statement shared on X.
Judit Polgar, the highest-ranked female chess player of all time, wrote, “I have no words. He was a very kind person, a strong chess player, a great chess commentator,” on social media.
Naroditsky’s final opponent, Indian Grandmaster Nihal Sarin, said that he appeared off during their game.
“He said he was under immense stress due to a lot of baseless accusations — heading by Kramnik of course,” Sarin told the Indian Express.
“Why would somebody like Naroditsky cheat?” he added, becoming emotional, before directing his ire at Kramnik.
“What do you get from ruining anyone’s life? Now [he is] almost directly responsible for taking one.”
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