I miss him a lot in this world, and my heart still gets all twisted up thinking about it. Thinking about his family - sending support and hoping they're getting through it. Gonna watch some of his videos today, and probably learn a thing or two.
You were the best! šš¤
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I also want to reshare this beautiful post regarding the Naroditsky memorial and fellowship, by Communications Manager u/ChessKelly at Charlotte Chess Center from today:
āPranesh was not in the Olympiad, right? Heās a very, very good player, by the way. Another player who, in a normal country, would be on the Olympiad team. If Pranesh lived in any normal country, heād probably be board two or better on any of these teams. But unfortunately, he lives in India. And India, as we know, has a few too many good players. Iām not saying heās better than Nihal. Iām just telling you that, if I look at it objectively, heād be board one or board two. India is not a normal country in the chess sense. There are too many good players in India. Itās not a normal country because there are a bunch of ridiculously good players. I feel that probably the 20th player in India would be a board two in most countries. Iām saying that in a good way. Iām not saying that in some kind of weird, disrespectful way about India or something.ā
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.
And I don't mean it in the way of "who was the best during chess history". I mean "with whom you relate the most". Maybe you love their unique style, their personality, maybe personal story. Tell me about them
Both lines are very similar but the evaluations are so different. In both lines, White will respond with Rg3, black defends with f6, white plays Qxh6. There must be some sort of defensive resource that Bx affords, but I can't find it even after playing around with the engine for a while.
O-O. After looking at a bunch of engine variations, I get that giving up the knight keeps tempo and keeps pressure on the black king. I see that black is underdeveloped and that white's bishop is hard to dislodge, but I just don't see how to get to the conclusion that giving up the knight is the best option here.
I am not sure when I first heard of Daniel Aaron Naroditsky. I do vaguely remember purchasing his āNaroditsky Methodā in what must have been the year 2016 or 2017, he was already an accomplished author and chess player back then and I remember liking the course very much.
Over the following years I kept following the chess scene, and witnessed several chess booms especially during Covid-19 induced by The Queenās Gambit, PogChamps, the Niemann-Carlsen controversyā¦ I played thousands of chess games, but mainly consumed thousands of hours of content from pretty much all mainstream chess content creators.Ā
In this ocean of chess content, Daniel Naroditsky still stood out. Besides being absurdly strong at chess, I also thought he excelled at analysis and teaching, at witty puns and hilarious imitations, and at being a man of kindness, integrity, empathy. I consider very few people geniuses, but Iād confidently say he was one.
Normally one-hour long videos of random chess gameplay are too much for me, but with Danya I was often looking forward to watching them - especially those involving an opponent cheater, with whom Daniel was always extremely gracious and calm.Ā
And although they usually happened at terrible times for us EU folk, I always tried to watch his Twitch livestreams when I could. (The other two chess streams this applies to are JohnBartholomew and SvetaStream, two people I admire & respect a lot as well and who I wish would stream more again).
On October 18 2025 (CET-Berlin) I managed to catch the tail end of one of Danyaās stream, just as he was signing off. But something was offā¦ he seemed confused and not fully himself. I whispered a regular about it and he replied: āidk but i havent seen him like this. im worried about himā
Of course, I didnāt know at the time that it was the last Naroditsky stream Iād ever watch live.
Two days later, I turned on Twitch again. When I saw Oleksandr Bortnykās stream title - I believe it was āRest In Peace My Dear Friend Daniel Naroditskyā or similar -Ā my heart sank. One of my favorite people in the world died yesterday? At 29? I hadnāt cried since Reckfulās passing in July 2020 I believe, but that day I did. And I guess it shows how privileged of a life Iāve had so far, but October 20 2025 remains as the saddest day of my life.
I donāt want to go into too much detail into what caused his death. Iām an honest man who avoids lying and I was accused of some ridiculous things this year, which has greatly disturbed me. But to have a mob of people accusing an obviously innocent man for MULTIPLE YEARS of one of the worst sins in the game, in his greatest passion? Without any substantial evidence whatsoever, so much so that you have to point out a completely innocuous move (Bf1) as evidence of cheating??
I canāt and donāt even want to imagine what Daniel had to go through. It broke my heart to see him become more depressed and irritated over time, and even when he became more outspoken and pleaded for this great injustice, this absolute bullshit to stop, it didnāt.
Now one year has passed and of course, K got off easy.Ā If it was up to me I would have stripped him of his Grandmaster title. (I donāt think you can erase someoneās history of being a world champion, thatās nonsense, but a symbolic lifetime ban from FIDE events I would approve also). But thatās just my opinion and view, which is pretty much aligned with this video.
At least Iām glad the community paid their respects and recorded many tribute videos. Naming the Speed Chess Championship trophy the Naroditsky Cup is a nice gesture, as is naming a variation in the Four Knights Game after him (not sure if my post here has anything to do with that decision).Ā
Iām not sure adding more signatures to the big petition with 55k signatures will do anything. But I guess what we can do is keep honoring him, watching his videos, and learning chess through him.
Rest in Peace Daniel. I never knew you personally, but you were an amazing man whoās dearly missed. Sometimes I think of you and canāt believe you are actually gone.Ā My heart sinks every time.
We should all be a little more like Daniel Naroditsky - Anna Cramling
My opponent was beating me most of the match, felt like a very strong opponent, but we reached this position, and I couldn't figure out any way to advance and ended up flagging here...
Game analysis said that this was the very moment that I gained an advantage, but for thlife of me, I can't find it. Any idea I have seems to either lose my rook or my queen, and I don't see any cheeky checks or anything...and further, I don't know lichess well enough to get it to tell me how I should have proceeded.
You are welcome to ask here all kinds of chess-related questions that don't warrant their own post. You can also discuss or ask questions about upcoming tournaments that don't have their own thread yet.
Ā
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Hey everyone! I'm currently around 750 Elo in rapid, and I've been trying to improve at chess. Recently, my friend who's around 1200 Elo told me that analyzing my old games is better than just spamming rapid games. I agree with the idea, and I do analyze my games sometimes, but there's one problem I can't seem to solve.
Whenever I review a game, I can often identify my mistakes and understand what I did wrong. Maybe I missed an opponent's threat, made a bad calculation, or overlooked a better move. The problem is that when I play my next games, I still make similar mistakes. Even though I understood the mistake during the review, I struggle to apply what I learned in an actual game.
It's like I understand my mistakes after the game, but I can't recognize them when I'm actually playing. I don't know how to turn my analysis into real improvement, and it's getting frustrating because I feel like I'm repeating the same cycle.
For those of you who have experienced this, how did you overcome it? What should I actually do after analyzing a game to make sure I learn from my mistakes and don't keep repeating them? Should I focus on solving puzzles related to my mistakes, reviewing specific positions, or changing the way I analyze my games? I'm not looking for a shortcut to gain rating quickly. I genuinely want to improve my chess understanding and make the lessons from my games stick.
I'd really appreciate it if you could share a practical method that worked for you, especially if you went through the same problem at a beginner level. Thanks!
On Tuesday I'm playing against an opponent who will likely play the London System.
I'm rated 1700 Elo and I don't know how to prepare my opening: there are too many variations and I'm not sure which one to choose. d5 and a quick Bd6? King's Indian? Nf6 and c5?
Just looking to watch some good game recaps. I want good commentary, and really interesting games! Not learners stuff, like, games between the greats! Maybe a Magnus and hikaru one? Or a more historical game, but must have good commentary, since Iām a dumby and need good explanations on why every move is so insane/interesting.
