The following is mostly my own opinions, even though many of my thoughts echo the sentiments of both the ordinary crowds making up the huge player and fan base of the chess community as well as known and respected chess celebrities. (Grandmasters, YouTube content creators and the like.)
On October 19th, 2025 Daniel “Danya” Naroditsky passed away suddenly. On that same day the speculation had already started, although between the shock and the respectfulness he and his family and close friends deserved the rumor mill was held at bay for a couple days. The prevailing opinion is that Daniel committed suicide.
And sadly, this is conspiracy theory adjacent, since the pattern is quite similar to the way someone like Alex Jones has operated. A few years ago, Kramnik became the self proclaimed savior of chess with a focus on stopping the rampant cheating. He’s not wrong, the same type of personalities creating entire poker sites dedicated to fleecing people via AI have been working at chess - a new base of interest having exploded during Covid lockdowns. And if you’re knew to the psychology involved hang in here and you might learn something.
Kramnik is a former world champion, a title legitimately earned with hard work and an abundance of natural talent he was the one to finally dethrone former world champion Garry Kasparov. Kasparov arguably being the greatest to ever play the game. (Personally I put him at #2 behind Carlsen.). But this was in the era where most serious tournaments were “old man’s chess”. You would literally play a game for hours before it concluded. Kramnik’s public media posts come off to many as an aging pro who has lost his top notch abilities, completely natural just like physical sports. And it’s difficult to read his written material without finding the touch of arrogance (which could be misconstrued as competitiveness) and the narcissism of a former star yearning for his former glory.
On the other hand, Naroditsky was a demon at the board for blitz chess. Or rather the computer, because if you’re going to crank out dozens of blitz games in a few hours it’s much easier to play online. His resume includes some impressive results in well attended Blitz tournaments. Formidable enough at slow time controls, he was well known to have the particular skill set to excel at blitz, such as winning the game by playing well rapidly to run out the opponent’s clock.
Kramnik has taken it upon himself to focus on Daniel as the primary target for baseless cheating accusations. His personal recaps on video are merely anecdotal and subjective evidence, therefore flimsy and weak. He’s displayed a remarkable aptitude to misconstrue statistical information. Personally, I believe this to be willfully misconstrued. Much like a gematria using MAGA or an Alex Jones finding people to harass Sandy Hook parents troll he has a supply of diehard keyboard warriors more than willing to repeat whatever he says.
For more than a year, Daniel Naroditsky had online harassment directed at him, the source of which can by video evidence and other parties be shown to be Kramnik himself. And although the screenshot shows he’s apologetic, any sympathy is hollow bullshit. Bullet point #1 is simply not true. It doesn’t even matter what the rest says. Like gematria making up fake evidence or Jones crying hoax and false flag, Kramnik has a vested interest in his reputation. And that’s not the reputation of being a nice guy, it’s his self appointed crown of being the bestest ever at catching online chess cheaters. And there’s a reason you’ve never heard about something like him being the chairman of a foundation dedicated to chess cheating. Twisting him being the source of Daniel’s negative state of mind into, “I’m the only one who tried to help.” The conspiracy theorist style hypocrisy.
Daniel isn’t even the first victim of Kramnik this year, as another notable player, David Navarra, was brutally attacked a few months ago in much the same manner. One of the top U.S. players, Hikaru Nakamura, was targeted. That died down because Hikaru is pretty feisty and extremely self confident and brushed it off. It looks like it’s not sufficient to be a competent speed chess player to get in the radar. You need the trolls to find someone that you can get in their head, become a constant background irritant like a sand flea that you can’t get to. And that quality, is
If you’re a nice guy snd competent, watch out. Daniel was a fantastic commentator, coach, author, teacher and beloved by anyone who doesn’t worship Kramnik. And that’s kind of the point. Numbers wise a smaller scale than the online army Jones built up. But it’s still an empire based on lies and disinformation. Danya’s empathy shown through and that makes him a target. Instead of a quality that should be a positive trait, one of the big rules of conspiracy style content is nice guys must finish last. You don’t get away with being a conspiracy theorist by just ignoring the qualified, educated scientific opinion of a Fauci. You must obey your cult leader and send out a death threat or ten. You’re not a real man unless you wear your lack of empathy as a badge of honor.
The idea that you can cheat at a 5 minute per side blitz game is pretty ridiculous. By the time you check what the computer says to play you’ve lost that extremely valuable asset in blitz - those precious seconds.
I offer this anecdote which I can track down if needed. Magnus Carlsen loved to play against Danya in blitz chess. There was pretty much this hierarchy in blitz chess. Carlsen and Nakamura toe to toe the best. After that maybe Alireza Firouzja, and after that Daniel. On Carlsen’s wedding night after all the partying had finished he played blitz chess with Daniel. Carlsen and the wife just had a baby boy. While in the hospital waiting, Carlsen played blitz with Daniel. You don’t get that kind of attention and respect from someone like a Carlsen if “you’re a big fat cheater and a terrible person.”
Officially there’s no final word that yea Daniel took his own life. He was in record the day before admitting to taking Benadryl and having problems sleeping. But so far its people are still quiet or have taken the time to voice that Kramnik was directly responsible for Daniel’s state of mind on the 19th. The FIDE body has issued a formal statement about intolerance to harassment, but I doubt anything will come about with that.
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