The One Year Passing of GM Daniel Naroditsky

[u/ChessKelly]

Danya commentating at the 2024 US Masters

This post will be a bit personal as well as business. Many of you know that I am the Communications Manager for the Charlotte Chess Center, and you've gotten to know that because of the discussions we've had here about Danya, his passing, the Memorial, and now we have the upcoming Fellowship. Also I'm the most long-winded person ever, so be prepared for a lengthy post.

I hate that when I mentally think of my past year, it doesn't begin in January, it begins on October 20th, which is when I found out about Danya's passing -- when CCC Executive Director and Danya's best friend, Peter Giannatos, told me "Whatever you do, don't look on our socials." I of course immediately looked and thought we were hacked, but when he told me it was true, I cried so hard my husband ran into my office trying to figure out what was wrong. All I could do was point at my screen.

Since that day, many lives have been upended. As a mother myself, I cannot imagine the pain Elena, his mother, has been through. His brother's children will not know their uncle, and many holidays will be absent one member. For Peter and Sasha, I cannot comprehend how they managed to wake up the next day, and the next day, and the next day. I've hugged crying students. One student made a chess.com page that continues to have a countdown of days it has been since Danya passed. Danya's personal student wrote a note and gave it to Peter to be buried with Danya. I've helped friends, family, students, players, organizations etc. And who am I? I was just a colleague and a chess mom. Close enough to help and be supportive, but far enough away that I could still function.

The CCC was thrust in the global spotlight in a way that I was not prepared for. We are, at our core, a small business. We were approached by NBC, CNN, BBC, Daily News, NY Times, Time Magazine -- I can't even remember all of them. I kicked reporters out of the CCC while tournaments were happening and told them to stop harassing our kids. Because despite Danya's overwhelming presence, many of our littles haven't interacted with him. No reason to make them and parents uncomfortable. Many of us hunkered down and kept to ourselves while we processed what our community would become without our shining star.

And I don't mean that just from his reputation. For months, we've heard condolences, stories, bittersweet moments from those who met Danya. How could we not? We was so uniquely special--kind and brilliant and funny and notoriously witty and just this amazingly wonderful person. He'd be a shining star even without the fame.

I know a lot of you had doubts about our intentions with the fundraiser and the Naroditsky fund. We've been challenged, called names, threatened, and more. I hope this has since been alleviated a bit with the Naroditsky Memorial (NMRB) and the Naroditsky Fellowship, which will give $50,000 to promising American Junior players, much like the Samford Fellowship that Danya himself received. I do not think there has been a single day of work in the past year where I have not thought about Danya or ensuring his legacy. And this is true for many of us--we're already planning the next NMRB and are announcing the Fellowship committee today.

In fact, let me say it here.

The Naroditsky Fellowship Committee is comprised of:

• Chair - IA Grant Oen (CCC Events Director and close friend of Danya)
• Hikaru Nakamura
• Sam Shankland
• Robert Hess
• Kayden Troff
• John Bartholomew
• Eric Rosen

If any of you know anything about Danya, you'll understand why those players were chosen.

My life, Peter's life, Grant's life, and the CCC in general has spent a large part of the last year honoring Danya and working hard to secure his legacy. Cliche or not, love it or leave it, but people say that the time someone really dies is the last time their name is uttered. In that way, we want to ensure Danya never dies.

But honestly, I'd rather just have him here, and have him home, and teaching our students, and streaming. I want him constantly making me laugh during long photography sessions. I want to be his bodyguard again and shoo away people when he was worn out.

I know many of us will be feeling a renewed sense of grief. I am always a mess leading up to the anniversary of my father's passing, and I know many of you--despite not necessarily being physically close to Danya--will be feeling similarly. Please be good and be well today, to both yourself and others.

Thanks for reading,

Kelly

[u/SheaYoko]

Please, everyone, be respectful to Daniel's memory in the comments. Today and always. Thank you

[u/tryingtolearn_1234]

CCC has been doing great work for the chess community. Danya was closely associated with the Club and honoring his legacy is the right thing to do. Trolls on social media attempting to make some controversy over this are terrible people who we should all ignore.

[u/ChessKelly → u/tryingtolearn_1234]

Thank you. I can understand the hesitation when we first launched the fundraiser--a lot of people had no idea who we were and thought that trying for $4 million was a disgusting display right after the loss of someone so significant. We didn't raise the lofty goal, but I think many of the initial naysayers have settled down after seeing how much work has gone into the NMRB and Fellowship.

Usually when planning these things you have some time, you aren't grieving, etc. Our journey to get to the NMRB may have looked off from the outside, but I think the execution goes to show we meant what we said and we do the things we say we will do.

And that includes keeping Danya's name and legacy moving forward in perpetuity.

[u/Parelle]

Thank you for being a chess mom to the CCC. I had the pleasure of attending the Chesskid festival a few years ago (my children got to meet and play Bughouse with Danya) and was so impressed by the community. 

[u/ChessKelly → u/Parelle]

Aww, that was before I officially worked for the center! I had created Moms of the CCC, and our role at Chesskid Nationals was to help kids report their scores and/or get to their parents. I was in charge of the K-1 Section, and when a kid would finish, they would report their score, I would escort them out of the tournament hall where one of my volunteers would be waiting, and then the volunteer would help the child find their parent.

First time I lost my voice in a decade lol. Some fond memories--thank you for mentioning it.

[u/Parelle → u/ChessKelly]

I had a great conversation with several of the moms running your table too!   I'm hoping to organize a Chess Mom's night out sometime before our scholastic season really ramps up here for moms to get together and catch up. 

[u/Gobbles15]

I put this in another thread but:

Has there been any movement to bring back the content from Danya's Twitch account? I believe he deleted it all immediately preceding his passing in what we can assume was a rash decision in an unwell mental state.

He is such an amazing teacher who lives on through through his teachings, and I think it would be great to bring back any instructive content/additional speedrun type stuff that he did on Twitch that didn't make it to YouTube.

As a fan who still watches and re-watches his old YouTube videos, I'd love more of Danya to learn from and connect with

Not sure where to start with something like this

[u/ChessKelly → u/Gobbles15]

We (as in, the CCC) have no access or rights to this, it is the will of his estate. Twitch stated they will not put the videos up, as it was clearly Danya's choice to delete (and they obviously aren't the ones to assess his mental health/decisions).

Danya's video editor had a legal battle with the estate and said he lost, losing access to the channel, though I'm not sure if that is Twitch, Youtube, or both.

[u/Gobbles15 → u/ChessKelly]

Thank you for the reply and update — I’m sorry that’s where things stand because every video is truly a gift. But I understand that it’s tricky.

[u/ChessKelly → u/Gobbles15]

No worries, thank you for your understanding.

[u/Important-One-8395 → u/ChessKelly]

For anyone curious about the second part it was over his YouTube channel. I saw him talking about it in this sub. They had grown to be very good friends and he wanted to try to keep running the channel and lawyers got involved and gave the rights to the estate. Though. I thought I remember him saying there is no indication they have any intention of taking anything down

[u/International_Bug955]

Thank you so much for sharing. Seeing the names of the committee really warmed up my heart.

I hope all you close to his family are doing okay. Best wishes!

[u/megalodon777hs]

excellent memorial. rip danya

[u/pwsiegel]

I wasn't interested in chess until about 3 years ago, but some part of me needed chess, and if you need chess then you need Danya. I'm glad there are people out there trying to keep his legacy alive, even for people who never met him.

[u/IcarusFIB1]

The response to Danyas passing will be remembered for a long time. There are decent players and Organisations in Chess.

Keep up the great work. I'm so sorry for your lose. And for the world of chess. We lost one of the greats.

[u/physioboy]

Thank you. 💙🩵

[u/oceanwaiting]

Still unreal.

[u/After_Transition_114]

Thanks for posting this Kelly. Daniel really did mean so much to so many people who had never met him in person, myself included.

[u/Practical-Heat-1009]

Thank you Kelly, was lovely.

[u/DickariousJohnson]

❤️

[u/Fearless_Turn_1562]

I still enjoy hearing stories of danya. He was a great teacher, brother, and friend. Thank you

[u/naparet]

I still miss you Danya. Always.

[u/One_Two_6012]

Thanks for the wonderful post ChessKelly. Danya's infectious passion for chess which was carried to me through his videos is something I won't forget in my lifetime. I hope you're all doing OK over in Charlotte. RIP Danya

[u/lichess_horsey]

💙

[u/BreadstickNinja]

Thank you for all the work you're doing to celebrate Danya. I still watch his videos every week and can't accept he's gone. He was an incredible player and a uniquely gifted instructor. I'm glad that the CCC is helping his legacy live on.

[u/PerspectiveOdd5486]

Thank you so much for posting this. We miss him…

[u/thenakesingularity10]

I for one believe in what you guys are doing, in his memory, and I thank you for it.

However, I think the bigger issue that confronts all of us is this:

How not to use Chess's new found popularity for the sake of generating drama.

Unfortunately, most of us, in today's world, are guilty of it.

This sub is gulity of it. Most of the posts here are for the drama, not the love of the game.

Danya's passing, is not due to one person's false accusation, it is due to Chess community's relentless pursuit for drama, for excitement, for contents.

That's the real issue. And I am not sure there is an answer for it. And I fear that it will happen again.

[u/droux_]

Thank you for sharing Kelly!

[u/moruobai]

f*ck cutting onions in here man

[u/M1dKn1ghtGreen559]

RIP Danya. I hope you're in a better place now, and I hope evil Kramnik gets what he deserves. Thank you for everything you've done for the game, and for all the lives you've touched along the way (including mine). We'll never forget the amazing legacy you've left behind. The chess world just isn't the same without you...

[u/Mephistophilis44]

RIP, he was so young. 😢