Tributes have poured in for Daniel Naroditsky, the American grandmaster who has died suddenly at the age of 29. Those who knew him best told of his kindness and humility. He once noted that his favourite saying about chess was this: ‘At the end of the game, both the king and the pawn go into the same box.’ That ethos made Naroditsky one of the game’s most popular commentators, with over half a million followers on YouTube.
‘Danya’ was both a precocious student and a gifted teacher. He published his first chess book (Mastering Positional Chess) when he was just 14 and went on to study history at Stanford. His online content, far more than most, was consistently edifying, and always delivered with a sense of humour and his trademark eloquence.
Since 2020 he had lived in Charlotte, where he was the resident grandmaster at the Charlotte Chess Center. He was a terrifically strong player, who gained early international recognition when he won the World U12 Championship in 2007. He became a grandmaster at the age of 18 and competed in five US Championships, once beating world no. 2 Fabiano Caruana in a classical game with the black pieces. But he was best-known for his proficiency in online blitz and bullet, where he was a match for the very best players in the world.
Speaking about their games, Magnus Carlsen praised Naroditsky’s ability to ‘drum up attacks out of nothing’. He was also a formidable blitz player over the board, and at the World Blitz Championship in New York in 2024, he finished in a ten-way tie for first place before tiebreaks. Shortly after his death, the international federation Fide announced that a special prize would be established to honour his memory.
Naroditsky once described the game below, which features a brace of positional exchange sacrifices, as his best.
Daniel Naroditsky-Isan R. Ortiz Suarez
US Masters Championship, 2019 (see diagram 1)
22 Rxe6! Bxe6 23 Rxe6 a6 24 Bb1 A clever prelude to the sacrifice which follows. Rc6 25 Rxe7! Qxe7 26 Nxd5 Qe6 27 Qd3! The threat of mate on h7 disentangles the pin. Once the knight moves, the pawns can roll forward. Kh8
28 Ne3 Rc8 29 d5 Qd7 30 d6 Bxd6 A desperate measure, but Black can hardly move. 31 cxd6 Rc1+ 32 Kh2 Rxb1 33 Qxb1 Qxd6 34 Nf5 Qe6 35 Qd3 h5 36 N3d4 Qe5 37 Nh6 Rf8 38 Ndf5 Qe6 39 Qf3 Qe8 40 Qxb7 Qg6 41 Qe7 Black resigns
Daniel Naroditsky-Wesley So
Aimchess US Rapid Prelim (online), 2021
26 Qg5!! Neither queen nor rook can be captured, somewhat reminiscent of the brilliant finish to Levitsky-Marshall, Breslau 1912. Qxb5 27 Rxf6 Rfe8 28 Rxg6 Nd7 29 Rg7 Black resigns as 29…Rg8 prevents Rxh7+ but then 30 Qe7 wins. A magnificent finish.
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