{"id":169064,"date":"2025-10-23T01:45:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T01:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/russian-chess-grandmaster-investigated-for-conduct-surrounding-daniel-naroditsky-death-usa-today\/"},"modified":"2025-10-23T01:45:00","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T01:45:00","slug":"russian-chess-grandmaster-investigated-for-conduct-surrounding-daniel-naroditsky-death-usa-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/russian-chess-grandmaster-investigated-for-conduct-surrounding-daniel-naroditsky-death-usa-today\/","title":{"rendered":"Russian chess grandmaster investigated for conduct surrounding Daniel Naroditsky death – USA Today"},"content":{"rendered":"

The International Chess Federation announced Oct. 22 that it is investigating Russian grandmaster Vladimir Kramnik for comments he made surrounding the death of American grandmaster Daniel Naroditsky.<\/a>
\u201cIn recent times, public debate within the chess world has too often moved beyond the boundaries of acceptable, harming not only people\u2019s reputation but their very well-being,\u201d Arkady Dvorkovich, the federation\u2019s president, said in a statement. \u201cWhen this happens, discussions can turn into harassment, bullying, and personal attacks \u2014 a grave concern in today\u2019s environment.\u201d
Dvorkovich stated that he is referring to \u201call relevant public statements\u201d made by Kramnik before and after Naroditsky\u2019s death, and that he is referring them to the federation\u2019s Ethics and Disciplinary Commission for investigation.
The Charlotte Chess Center announced<\/a> on Oct. 20 that Naroditsky died at 29 and called the former World Junior Champion\u2019s death \u201cunexpected.\u201d\u00a0
Naroditsky accused Kramnik of cheating online last year. Naroditsky denied any wrongdoing and appeared visibly distressed in his final Twitch broadcast on Oct. 18. He discussed the controversy and its toll on him, citing comments in the chat. The video was deleted from his official Twitch account, but a copy uploaded to YouTube was reviewed by USA TODAY.
Kramnik, the world champion from 2000 to 2007,\u00a0defended his comments in a statement to Reuters, claiming that he had suffered bullying and damaging statements towards him, including murder threats.
\u201cWhat public statement after the death of Daniel was incorrect? … I demand clarification from Mr. President. I have not bullied Daniel Naroditsky, nor ever made personal insults towards him,\u201d the 50-year-old, who retired from competitive chess in 2019, told the wire service.
USA TODAY has reached out to Kramnik for further comment.
The Russian grandmaster has a history of levying cheating allegations, according to a 2023 New York Times report.<\/a> Chess.com closed Kramnik\u2019s blog and muted his account before the report\u2019s publication, telling the Times: \u201cIn the vast majority of cases, we found his accusations baseless.\u201d
Multiple prominent chess figures have condemned Kramnik.
The second-ranked player in the world, Hikaru Nakamura, denounced the Russian\u2019s behavior in a YouTube stream<\/a>. Nakamura referred to Oct. 18 X posts from Kramnik reading \u201cdon\u2019t do drugs<\/a>\u201d and later referencing a \u201cstrange recent stream of Naroditsky<\/a>\u201d as \u201c(expletive) rich.\u201d
Former world champion Magnus Carlsen told viewers in a separate stream<\/a> that\u00a0Kramnik\u2019s treatment of Naroditsky was \u201chorrible.\u201d
Indian grandmaster Nihal Sarin said on X that<\/a> \u201cthe relentless, baseless accusations and public interrogations he faced in recent months caused (Naroditsky) immense pressure and pain.\u201d
Sarin told The Indian Express<\/a> in an interview following Naroditsky\u2019s death that he was the final person to play the American on Chess.com and blamed Kramnik for the death. \u201cHe (Kramnik) has kind of literally taken a life,\u201d Sarin said.
Naroditsky was a California native who\u00a0played in five U.S. Championships<\/a>, according to the U.S. Chess Federation, and secured titles in junior and youth competitions. He won the gold medal in the Under-12 Open section of the 2007 FIDE World Youth Championships and, at age 17, the 2013 U.S. Junior Championship.
Naroditsky was among the top-ranked in the world in blitz chess, a type of speed chess with specific time rules,\u00a0as per<\/a>\u00a0the International Chess Federation (FIDE).
He also published a book,\u00a0\u201cMastering Positional Chess,\u201d at just 14 years old in 2010 and another, \u201cMastering Complex Endgames,\u201d in 2012.
He served as a \u201cChess Life\u201d\u00a0columnist from 2014 to 2020 and wrote columns for the New York Times. Naroditsky was known for a large online following, thanks to his love for teaching and streaming chess on platforms like Twitch and\u00a0YouTube<\/a>. From 2020 to 2025, he was the Grandmaster-in-Residence of the Charlotte Chess Center.
\u201cDaniel 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,\u201d\u00a0the Charlotte Chess Center said in its announcement of Naroditsky\u2019s death. \u201cHe was also a loving son and brother, and a loyal friend to many.\u201d
FIDE expressed condolences to Naroditsky\u2019s family and said it would honor him with a special award recognizing his contributions as a player, teacher, and commentator.
Contributing: Reuters<\/em><\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The International Chess Federation announced Oct. 22 that it is investigating Russian grandmaster Vladimir Kramnik for comments he made surrounding the death of American grandmaster Daniel Naroditsky.\u201cIn recent times, public debate within the chess world has too often moved beyond the boundaries of acceptable, harming not only people\u2019s reputation but their very well-being,\u201d Arkady Dvorkovich, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":169065,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-169064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}