Daniel Naroditsky

Daniel Naroditsky^[2] (born November 9, 1995),^[1] often referred to as Danya,^[3][4] is an American chess grandmaster, author, and commentator.

Daniel Naroditsky
Naroditsky in 2016
Country	United States
Born	(1995-11-09) November 9, 1995 (age 29)[1] San Mateo, California, U.S.
Title	Grandmaster (2013)
FIDE rating	2619 (August 2025)
Peak rating	2647 (May 2017)[2]
Twitch information
Channel	GMNaroditsky
Followers	339,000

Chess career

Born in San Mateo, California,^[5] Naroditsky learned chess at age six from his father. He was soon taking serious chess lessons. Naroditsky won the 2007 Northern California K–12 Chess Championship, the youngest player ever to do so.^{[citation needed]}

In 2007, Naroditsky won the Under 12 section of the World Youth Chess Championship with 9½/11, tying with Illya Nyzhnyk and winning the gold medal on tiebreaks.^[6][7]

At the 2010 U.S. Open, Naroditsky scored 7½/9 to share second place with Alexander Shabalov, Varuzhan Akobian, and Julio Sadorra, but behind Alejandro Ramírez. This qualified him for the 2011 U.S. Championship, as Ramirez was not eligible to compete.^{[citation needed]} Naroditsky competed in the 2011, 2012, and 2013 U.S. Junior Championships, winning clear first place in 2013 with 6.5/9, ahead of Samuel Sevian and Luke Harmon-Vellotti.^[8] The 2013 victory qualified him for the 2014 U.S. Championship.^{[citation needed]}

Naroditsky earned his first grandmaster norm at the Benasque Open in July 2011.^[9] He earned his second grandmaster norm at the 2013 Philadelphia Open by tying for first place with Fidel Corrales Jimenez.^[10] He earned his final grandmaster norm at the 2013 Benasque Open.^[11] Naroditsky was officially awarded the grandmaster title at the end of 2013 at age 18.

In 2014, Naroditsky was awarded the Samford Chess Fellowship.^[12] Later that year, he tied for fifth place in the Millionaire Chess Open in Las Vegas.^[13] In 2015, Naroditsky represented the United States at the World Team Championship, where he scored 4.0/7, defeating Dmitry Jakovenko and Evgeny Postny, but losing to Hrant Melkumyan. He finished with a performance rating of 2701.^{[citation needed]}

Naroditsky played in the 2011, 2014, 2015, 2017, and 2021 U.S. Championships. In the 2021 U.S. Championship, he defeated Fabiano Caruana who was rated 2800 FIDE and ranked #2 in the World.^[14] In 2019, Naroditsky tied for first place at the U.S. Masters Championship.^{[citation needed]}

He plays on Chess.com under the handle DanielNaroditsky,^[15] and on Lichess.org under the handle RebeccaHarris.^[16] He frequently ranks at the top of both websites' leaderboards in Blitz and Bullet. His peak bullet rating on Chess.com is 3553, and peak bullet rating on lichess is 3326.^[17][18]

By FIDE ratings, Naroditsky is consistently ranked in the top 200 in the World and top 15 in the U.S. in Classical, top 75 in Rapid, and top 25 in Blitz.^[2] In August 2024, Naroditsky crossed 2700 FIDE Blitz rating for the first time.^[2]

In 2024, Naroditsky was accused by former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik of cheating in online chess. Naroditsky rejected the allegations, referring to Kramnik as "worse than dirt." He was defended by fellow content creator GM Hikaru Nakamura.^[19][20]

In December 2024, Naroditsky tied for first place in the Swiss portion of the 2024 World Blitz Chess Championship with a score of 9.5/13 and performance rating of 2749, finishing 9th place on tiebreaks but failing to advance to the 8-player knockout stage.^[21] As of August 2025, his FIDE blitz rating is currently 2732, ranking #18 in the World and #6 in the US.^[22] In August 2025, Naroditsky won the US National Blitz Championship with a score of 14/14.^[23]

Writing and other activities

Naroditsky published the books Mastering Positional Chess in 2010, and Mastering Complex Endgames in 2012.^{[citation needed]} He wrote The Practical Endgame, a column in Chess Life Magazine,^[24] from 2014 to 2020.

In 2022, Naroditsky wrote a series of 19 columns featuring chess puzzles based on historical games for The New York Times.^[25][26]

Since 2020, he has been the Grandmaster-in-Residence of the Charlotte Chess Center.^[27] Naroditsky is an active content creator on YouTube and Twitch, where he has over 473,000 subscribers and 339,000 followers, respectively.^[28][29]

Personal life

Naroditsky's parents are Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union. His father, Vladimir, immigrated from Ukraine, while his mother Lena came from Azerbaijan.^[30] Naroditsky attended high school at Crystal Springs Uplands School in Hillsborough, California.^[31] He attended Stanford University until 2019, studying history.^[32]

He has resided in Charlotte, North Carolina since 2020.^[25]

Books

• Naroditsky, Daniel (2010). Mastering Positional Chess. New In Chess. ISBN 978-90-5691-310-6.
• Naroditsky, Daniel (2012). Mastering Complex Endgames. New In Chess. ISBN 978-9056914059.