Charlotte Chess Center on Instagram: "It is with great sadness that we share the unexpected passing of Daniel Naroditsky. Daniel was a talented chess player, educator, and cherished member of the chess community. He was also a loving son, brother, and loyal friend. We ask for privacy for Daniel’s family during this extremely difficult time. Let us honor Daniel by remembering his passion for chess and the inspiration he brought to us all."
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21K likes, 782 comments - charlottechesscenter on October 20, 2025: "It is with great sadness that we share the unexpected passing of Daniel Naroditsky. Daniel was a talented chess player, educator, and cherished member of the chess community. He was also a loving son, brother, and loyal friend. We ask for privacy for Daniel’s family during this extremely difficult time. Let us honor Daniel by remembering his passion for chess and the inspiration he brought to us all.".
  • SnokenKeekaGuard@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    10·
    2 months ago

    Oh my god. Rest in peace. ❤️

    From his yt videos and all his interviews etc he seemed like a very nice and likeable person. One of my absolute favourites. Learned a lot from his yt videos.

    This news has genuinely shocked me. Jeez this is weird.

  • Luvs2Spuj@lemmy.world
    7·
    2 months ago

    Terrible news. I think this is the first time I’ve been genuinely upset about the passing of someone I knew only from their public life and work. He seemed like such a great guy.

  • blaze@programming.dev
    7·
    2 months ago

    RIP Danya. He was one of, if not the best for educational speed run content.

    I’m genuinely sad.

  • freedom@lemy.lol
    5·
    2 months ago

    RIP, his stream was always so easy to watch because of how good natured he was. Kramnik is a scumbag.

    • Bonifratz@sh.itjust.worksOP
      6·
      2 months ago

      Yes (I don’t have an instagram account myself), but the text is in the body of this post anyway. As of now the only sources are social media so there’s nothing better to link to.

      • FunctionallyLiterate@lemmy.ca
        3·
        2 months ago

        I’m seeing no text in my Lemmy client (Thunder). I was able to see it by opening the post in a browser, so thanks for the response.

  • solrize@lemmy.ml
    4·
    2 months ago

    Yikes! He was 29 and passed unexpectedly. There are many threads on r/chess about this, but not much more info for now. RIP Danya.

    • Bonifratz@sh.itjust.worksOP
      4·
      2 months ago

      GM Bortnyk (who found him) talked about it on his stream. He went there with another friend and at first they thought Naroditsky was sleeping. The cause of death is not known to Bortnyk.

      • solrize@lemmy.ml
        3·
        2 months ago

        OMG that is awful. Thanks for the update. Autopsy results will probably take a while and maybe we’ll find out more then, if the family is willing.

  • IrishMaster@lemmy.ml
    2·
    2 months ago

    I have not seen any of his online stuff but to die at such a young age and to have helped a lot of players, RIP

  • SaraTonin@lemmy.world
    2·
    2 months ago

    FIDE chief Emil Sutovsky released a reprehensible statement on twitter (which I’m not going to link) where he briefly mentioned Danya and briefly said that Kramnik had behaved badly, and then spent a few paragraphs berating Naroditsky’s friends and family for not supporting him enough, while simultaneously admitting that he wasn’t friends with him and hadn’t spoken to him in 4 years.

    Nemo Zhou is going scorched-earth on him over it, and Levi “GothamChess” Rozman also released a video where he calls out Sutovsky: https://youtu.be/zY3P9Hx8Ep0

    It’s difficult to know what the fallout of all of this is going to be, but it certainly seems like we’ve reached some kind of tipping point.

    It’s worth pointing out that nobody yet knows the cause of death, but everybody - including those who knew Danya best - seems to unanimously agree that whatever the direct cause, Kramnik’s baseless accusations played a significant role.