Daniel Naroditsky, populary known as Danya, had worn the hats of author, commentator, and content creator apart from being the chess U.S. Grandmaster. In a recent shock to his fans and fellow chess champions, Daniel’s family announced that he had passed away on October 19, 2925. Although the cause of death has not been revealed yet, Russian Grandmaster, Vladimir Kramnik has hinted towards foul play. Daniel’s fans have also raised questions about his strange behaviour

Daniel Naroditsky was also a Twitch streamer and YouTube content creator, apart from a Grandmaster. His content revolved around chess. Daniel often played the game on Chess.com and Lichess.com. He was ranked very high frequently on both the website’s leaderboard. The Grandmaster also used to educate his subscribers about chess through these streams. Daniel’s easy and educational way of making people understand chess had made him one of the most popular streamers of the game around the world.

However, during his last stream, the viewers had found his behaviour to be strange. One Redditor wrote, “He just uploaded a new speedrun video a few days ago after being MIA for months. He didn’t look well. Really looked disheveled.” Another comment said, “If you watched his last stream, you’d understand. He was indeed having a bit of a mental break it seems. His jaw was rocking back and forth and his eyes were super wide while he spoke noticeably incoherently, sometimes in Russian. I was really worried since watching it.” Another Redditor stated:

“He streamed a few days ago and was very clearly unwell. Falling asleep, rambling, tilting, it looked really bad and someone had to go to his place to get him to end the stream and he was talking about Kramnik. I’d imagine since that he may be pulling back from his online presence.”

In 2024, Daniel got into a controversy when he was accused of cheating in online chess by World Champion and Russian Grandmaster, Vladimir Kramnik. Daniel, who was known for not holding back and being upfront, called the Russian Grandmaster ‘worse than dirt’. Now, after the passing of Daniel, Vladmir took to his X account and posted a screenshot of a text that he had received from someone after Daniel’s last stream on Twitch. The texts showed concern about Daniel and alleged that it looked like he was on some substance. Vladimir then tweeted with the screenshot:

“What exactly happened? Because I received this two days ago from a friend of mine chess fan, and at least did what I could to warn people to do something urgently in my posts. To those who prefer blaming and shaming instead of helping. Awfull tradegy, hope properly investigated.”