“A talented player, commentator and educator, a valued member of the chess community.” With these laudatory words the Charlotte Chess Center of North Carolina describes the American grandmaster Daniel Naroditsky. This young chess prodigy, who became a “grandmaster” at the age of 18, died suddenly at the age of 29, according to a press release published on Monday, October 20.
“Let us remember him for his passion and love for the game of chess, and for the joy and inspiration he gave us every day,” adds the family, in a message shared by the center.
Quickly, expressions of support and affection poured in on social networks. “I am upset,” wrote American grandmaster and world number two Hikaru Nakamura. “It is a great loss for the chess world.” Former world champion Garry Kasparov also paid tribute to the young prodigy and published on his X account, ex-Twitter, a photo in which he appears with Daniel Naroditsky when he was still a child.
Chess, the new star of the networks
Born in California, Daniel Naroditsky, also known as Danya, earned the title of chess grandmaster, one of the discipline’s highest titles, in 2013, when he was 18 years old. He wrote several books about chess, was very present on social networks and ran a YouTube channel followed by more than 490,000 people.
Your goal? Popularize chess among a wider audience, especially among younger people. The grandmaster periodically broadcasts his games live on Twitch. He also had fun commenting on other players’ games.
Daniel Naroditsky is not the only chess player who has tried the adventure of social networks. In recent years, content creators have been dusting off failures by increasing the number of educational or humorous videos. This is the case, for example, of the Swedish Anna Cramling, who started the Twitch adventure in 2020 or the Frenchman Kévin Bordi, also known as Blitzstream on the Amazon platform.
A trend that does not escape the most traditional content creators. Thus, Inoxtag had fun organizing large chess tournaments broadcast live on YouTube. He also faced basketball player Victor Wembanyama. Success is also achieved here. The video exceeds 800,000 views.
Source: BFM TV
