Former world chess champion may face discipline for unproven claims about Daniel Naroditsky

Chess’s international governing body said Wednesday it’s considering disciplinary action against a former Russian world champion who persistently leveled unproven cheating allegations at Daniel Naroditsky in the year leading up to the American grandmaster’s death.

The Charlotte Chess Center in North Carolina, where Naroditsky trained and worked as a coach, announced his death Monday. He was 29. The cause of death has not been made public.

Russian grandmaster Vladimir Kramnik, who held the world title for several years in the early 2000s, began accusing the California-born pro of cheating in online chess matches last October. He continued to share his suspicions on social media over the past year without providing substantial evidence.

Naroditsky, who became a grandmaster, the highest title in chess aside from world chess champion, at 18, had denied the cheating allegations and accused Kramnik of trying to ruin his life.

Arkady Dvorkovich, president of the International Chess Federation, said Wednesday he has formally referred all relevant public statements made by Kramnik before and after Naroditsky’s death to the body’s Ethics and Disciplinary Commission for review. He promised the federation would take “appropriate action” in any case where public harassment or bullying is observed.

The body requires substantial evidence to launch a cheating investigation and may sanction a player who makes unfounded accusations based on emotion or insufficient data, according to its anti-cheating laws. There were no documented reports of the federation investigating Naroditsky.

The Associated Press reached out Wednesday to Kramnik via social media for comment.

The investigation comes as several grandmasters, including Hikaru Nakamura and Nihal Sarin, have called out Kramnik’s conduct, saying the Russian pro had harassed Naroditsky and tried to destroy his reputation.

Five-time world chess champion Magnus Carlsen called Kramnik’s relentless pursuit of Naroditsky “appalling.”

During his last livestream Saturday, Naroditsky told his massive online following that Kramnik’s cheating claims had taken a toll on him.

“Ever since the Kramnik stuff, I feel like if I start doing well, people assume the worst of intentions. The issue is just the lingering effect of it,” Naroditsky said, adding that Kramnik used to be one of his “heroes.”

It’s not the first time Kramnik has been accused of harassment. The popular internet chess server Chess.com shut down Kramnik’s blog on the site in 2023, saying he had used it to spread baseless allegations about “many dozens of players.”

The following year, Kramnik published a list of players on social media with the title “Cheating Tuesdays” that included Czech grandmaster David Navara. Navara later shared on his blog that Kramnik’s public accusations had pushed him to consider suicide. Kramnik responded by accusing Navara of defamation.

In June, the federation responded to the players’ public spat, saying the way Kramnik presents his arguments “brings a lot of harm to the chess community,” and “could be ruinous for the careers and well-being of certain players.” The group invited Kramnik to present the details of his approach and statistical data for official evaluation.

Kramnik’s anti-cheating crusade exploded with the game’s shift online during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Many elite players traded the physical chess board for a keyboard to continue playing through lockdown, creating a surge in popularity for streaming content and fast-paced online games in which Naroditsky excelled.

Players of the cerebral sport are known to value respectful conduct over the board. But in the digital arena, a new level of toxicity has developed, with cheating allegations growing rampant and becoming much more difficult to prove. Players now have sophisticated computer schemes at their fingertips that could give them an unfair advantage, and new ways to profit off their success online.

In blitz and bullet chess, where players have mere minutes to finish intense matches, experts say top talents often move with speed and precision on par with a computer. Naroditsky was among the world’s top 25 blitz players and won the U.S. National Blitz Championship in August.

“In recent times, public debate within the chess world has too often moved beyond the boundaries of acceptable, harming not only people’s reputation but their very well-being,” Dvorkovich acknowledged Wednesday. “When this happens, discussions can turn into harassment, bullying, and personal attacks — a particularly serious concern in today’s environment.”

Dvorkovich said the federation will establish a prize in Naroditsky’s memory.

Kramnik continued to post about Naroditsky on the day his death was announced, calling it a tragedy and speculating about the cause. Kramink also wrote on the social platform X that the “tragedy should be investigated by police.” He wrote Wednesday that he received threats after revealing “public information about the ‘dark side’ of modern chess.”