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The grieving mother of chess grandmaster Daniel Naroditsky told of the torment her son faced over cheating allegations and how he struggled to shake the charges in an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail.
The 29-year-old prodigy was found dead on his couch in Charlotte, North Carolina, by fellow chess grandmaster Oleksandr Bortnyk, who went to check on him on Sunday.
Police confirmed to the Daily Mail they suspect Naroditsky may have committed suicide or accidently overdosed and are awaiting toxicology results to determine what was in his system.
There were no signs of foul play and investigators do not suspect any criminal activity.
It comes as haunting footage showed him during an online chess match in the earlier hours just a day before he was found dead.
Speaking exclusively with Daily Mail, his mother Elena Naroditsky shared words of heartbreak about her son's mysterious death.
She spoke of his underlying emotional struggles in dealing with repeated accusations of cheating in online games by Russian chess grandmaster Vladimir Kramnik.
Kramnik, 50, had accused Naroditsky and others of using 'chess engines' – computer programs that generate moves regarded as the strongest in a given scenario – for online games.
Chess grandmaster Daniel Naroditsky's sudden death at age 29 has stunned the online chess community, as he was haunted by cheating accusations from a former world champion
His grieving mother Elena Naroditsky told Daily Mail that for her son 'there was nothing more important than his dignity and his name as a chess player'
Russian chess grandmaster Vladimir Kramnik accused Naroditsky and others of using 'chess engines' to cheat in online games
Kramnik, world champion from 2000 to 2006, had repeatedly attacked him over the past year.
'There was nothing more important to Daniel than his dignity and his name as a chess player,' Naroditsky's mother told Daily Mail in an interview Tuesday night from her home in California.
'And the ex-world champion was trying to say he's a cheater.
'Daniel tried to defend himself so much,' she continued. 'The whole world was on Daniel's side. He played more and did more and more because he was trying to prove that he's not what he was accused of.'
She pointed out that her son, known affectionately as Danya, had been planning to visit family in the Bay Area later this week.
She said he was planning to visit his older brother Alan's new baby and to celebrate his own birthday on November 9.
But now the family is preparing for his funeral.
'My sister just came from Philadelphia,' she told Daily Mail. 'We're just trying to assess what to do. There's a lot of plans to do for the funeral.'
'It's a tragedy,' the mother sobbed. 'He was my dearest son. He was 29.
Fellow grand master Oleksandr Bortnyk discovered Naroditsky's when he went to his home in Charlotte to check on him
Bortnyk described the horrifying discovery during a Twitch livestream on Monday
'Daniel was such a life,' she added. 'He was so brilliant, so incredibly kind and loving, thoughtful, giving, inspiring.
Kramnik has been widely attacked for making his accusations. The Russian responded with a message on X.
'Without a doubt, this recent tragedy should be investigated by police,' Kramnik wrote. 'There are too many huge financial interests involved to be sure about it being just an incident. I am ready to provide all information required.'
The young man's death was announced by his club, the Charlotte Chess Center, on Monday.
During a Twitch livestream Monday, Bortnyk described how he and a friend went to check on Naroditsky after losing contact with him.
He told viewers he let himself in after noticing the television was on before finding the chess master's lifeless body.
Bortnyk, 29, also recalled his last conversation with his friend.
'Danya, don't worry about anything,' Bortnyk recalled telling him. 'I love you so much.'
'I'm happy my last words were supportive,' he told viewers.
In a livestream claimed to be Naroditsky's last, he himself described the toll that Kramnik's allegations had taken.
Naroditsky, a California native and Stanford graduate who won junior and youth tournaments as a child, made a splash in the chess world which allowed him to publish a book titled 'Mastering Positional Chess' when he was just 14
His success at a young age brought opportunities such as meeting MLB players Andrew Brown and Huston Street of the Oakland Athletics in the clubhouse before agame against the at the Coliseum in Oakland in 2008
'Unfortunately, ever since the Kramnik stuff, I feel like if I start doing well, people assume the worst of intentions,' he said.
'The issue is the lingering effect of it,' he told his audience.
Last fall, Naroditsky said that he felt the rival was trying to 'destroy my life' and inflict 'emotional and physical harm'.
'I thought he was going to put out three or four crazy, delusional videos, and then he would move to the next target and eventually the chess world would wake the hell up,' Naroditsky said in an episode of the C-Squared podcast hosted by grandmasters Fabiano Caruana and Cristian Chirila.
'Unfortunately, the opposite happened, and it became apparent to me that this is no longer a case of me being next in line, but a sustained, evil and absolutely unhinged attempt to destroy my life.
'I'm tired of mincing words, he is trying to ruin my life, trying to inflict emotional harm, physical harm on me, he knows exactly what he's doing, and this is one of the most wicked people I have ever dealt with.'
Kramnik has previously accused other players of cheating in online games.
He called out five-time US chess champion Hikaru Nakamura, 37, of cheating, after his 46-game no-loss streak via online gaming platform Chess.com, saying in a blog post that such a feat was statistically improbable.
Hikaru Nakamura was also accused of cheating by Kramnik after a 46-game win streak on Chess.com that the Russian said was statistically improbable
Kramnik called for police to investigate his rival's death. ''There are too many huge financial interests involved to be sure about it being just an incident,' he tweeted
Naroditsky, a Stanford graduate who won junior and youth tournaments as a child, published a book titled 'Mastering Positional Chess' when he was just 14 in 2010.
His videos helped him grow his online audience to 340,000 followers on Twitch and just short of 500,000 on YouTube.
Indian grand master Nihal Sarin – who had played Naroditsky more than 2,000 times online – said Kramnik 'has kind of literally taken a life'.
He also tweeted: 'When respected figures spread unfounded allegations without accountability, real lives are destroyed.
'Daniel's smile faded after the attacks began. We all saw it,' added Sarin, 21.
Nakamura, who is ranked No.1 in America, was among those to pay tribute to Naroditsky, saying: 'I'm devastated. This is a massive loss for the world of chess.'
In a statement on social media, the International Chess Federation said: 'Daniel Naroditsky passed away. He was a talented chess player, commentator, and educator.'
Chess.com, the world's most popular chess site, has previously closed Kramnik's blog and muted his account, and said it had met with the Russian grandmaster 'numerous times'.
'Our team carefully investigated many dozens of players about which GM Kramnik raised suspicions. In the vast majority of cases, we found his accusations baseless,' a statement said.
In the wake of Naroditsky's death, a slew of fans and admirers have come forward, including Croatian YouTuber and chess player Antonio Radić who described him as a 'great person' who had the ability to hold viewers' attention for hours
American grandmaster Hans Niemann said the two grew up in the same area and that Naroditsky never hesitated to offer advice
The site added that Kramnik's previous accusations against Nakamura 'lack statistical merit'.
Before he died, Naroditsky attempted to defend his reputation multiple times to the online chess community.
Fans and admirers mourned his death on social media, with Croatian YouTuber and chess player Antonio Radić, writing: 'Unimaginable tragedy. A great person, chess player and chess history connoisseur.
'I could listen do Danya for hours just effortlessly bending the English language to his will– as a fellow content creator, I admired it greatly. R.I.P.'
American grandmaster Hans Niemann, 22, wrote: 'I am heartbroken by Danya's passing. We both grew up in the Bay Area, and I looked up to him from a young age.
'I vividly remember our first blitz games when I was nine, he was kind and generous with his advice afterward.
'I credit a large part of my improvement to those battles. Danya's kindness, wisdom, and love for the game left a lasting mark on me.'
