Daniel Naroditsky, US chess grandmaster, dies aged 29

US chess grandmaster and online commentator Daniel Naroditsky has died aged 29.

The popular chess player’s family announced his “unexpected” death in a statement released by his club, the Charlotte Chess Center, on Monday. 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 cherished member of the chess community, admired and respected by fans and players around the world.”

The US and International chess federations have paid tribute to Naroditsky, along with other professional players.

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

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

As well as competing in high-level events, Naroditsky ran a chess YouTube channel, with nearly 500,000 subscribers.

His Twitch stream drummed up 340,000 followers, with hundreds of thousands of viewers drawn to his regular video tutorials and livestreams against competitors. Fans praised his insight and passion, casually referring to him as ‘Danya’.

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

Naroditsky first took an interest 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 multiple coaches soon 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 boys world youth championship in Antalya, Turkey. In 2010, at the age of 14, he became one of the youngest ever published chess authors when he wrote a book titled Mastering Positional Chess, covering practical skills and technical manoeuvrings.

In 2013 Naroditsky won the US Junior Championship, helping him earn the title of grandmaster, the international chess federation’s highest-ranked chess competitor, while he was 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 to a series of chess puzzles for the newspaper’s games section.

In the publication’s accompanying interview, the young grandmaster mused on chess’s influence in his life.

“Even at my level, I can still discover beautiful things about the game every single time I train, teach, play or am a commentator at a tournament,” he said.

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

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

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

She added that he was known for being a “true historian of the game” who had a great memory for chess facts and historical games, and “did everything with kindness.”

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