Chess Grandmaster Naroditsky’s Suspected Suicide Sparks Global Cheating Controversy

Daniel Naroditsky, a 29-year-old American grandmaster and popular streamer known as “Danya,” was found dead in his Charlotte home on October 19, 2025, and authorities are investigating possible suicide or a drug overdose. His death has provoked widespread grief and anger after months of public, unproven insinuations by former world champion Vladimir Kramnik that Naroditsky had cheated online, with many peers saying those accusations harmed his mental health. Kramnik has denied responsibility, offered condolences, said he had urged others to help Naroditsky when he appeared unwell, welcomed the U.S. criminal investigation, and said his lawyers are preparing action over threats to him and his family. Friends who discovered Naroditsky and footage from his final livestream describe him as visibly distressed and resistant to pleas to stop streaming, and some commentators directly linked the online pressure to his decline. The controversy has underscored new risks as chess becomes a global, internet-driven spectator sport—where cheating probes, social-media pile-ons and mental-health pressures collide—and echoes longer histories of personal cost in elite chess recounted by figures such as Susan Polgar.