Daniel Naroditsky (born November 9, 1995), often referred to as Danya, is an American

chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...

grandmaster, author, and commentator.

Chess career

Born in

San Mateo, California San Mateo ( ) is the most populous city in San Mateo County, California, United States, on the San Francisco Peninsula. It is part of the San Francisco Bay Area metropolitan region, and is located about south of San Francisco. San Mateo border ...

, 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. In 2007, Naroditsky won the Under 12 section of the

World Youth Chess Championship The World Youth Chess Championship is a FIDE-organized worldwide chess competition for boys and girls under the age of 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18. History Twelve world champions are crowned every year. Since 2015 (OR 2016), the event has been s ...

with 9½/11, tying with Illya Nyzhnyk but winning the gold medal on tiebreaks. 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. 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. The 2013 victory qualified him for the 2014 U.S. Championship. Naroditsky earned his first grandmaster

norm Norm, the Norm or NORM may refer to: In academic disciplines * Normativity, phenomenon of designating things as good or bad * Norm (geology), an estimate of the idealised mineral content of a rock * Norm (philosophy), a standard in normative e ...

at the Benasque Open in July 2011. He earned his second grandmaster norm at the 2013 Philadelphia Open by tying for first place with Fidel Corrales Jimenez. He earned his final grandmaster norm at the 2013 Benasque Open. Naroditsky was officially awarded the grandmaster title at the end of 2013 at age 18. In 2014, Naroditsky was awarded the Samford Chess Fellowship. Later that year, he tied for fifth place in the Millionaire Chess Open in

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

. 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 Hrant Slavayi Melkumyan (; born April 30, 1989, in Yerevan) is an Armenian chess Grandmaster and European Blitz Champion in 2011. Chess career He won the international Internet championship organized by the ICC chess Internet portal. In 2006, ...

. He finished with a performance rating of 2701. Naroditsky played in the 2011, 2014, 2015, 2017, and 2021 U.S. Championships. In the 2021 U.S. Championship, he defeated

Fabiano Caruana Fabiano Luigi Caruana (born July 30, 1992) is an Italian and American chess grandmaster who is the reigning four-time United States Chess Champion. With a peak rating of 2844, Caruana is the third-highest-rated player in history. Born in Mia ...

who was rated 2800 FIDE and ranked #2 in the World. In 2019, Naroditsky tied for first place at the U.S. Masters Championship. He plays on Chess.com under the handle DanielNaroditsky, and on Lichess.org under the handle RebeccaHarris. 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. 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. In August 2024, Naroditsky crossed 2700 FIDE Blitz rating for the first time. In December 2024, Naroditsky tied for first place in the Swiss portion of the 2024

World Blitz Chess Championship The World Blitz Chess Championship is a chess tournament held to determine the world champion in chess played under blitz time controls. Since 2012, FIDE has held an annual joint rapid and blitz chess tournament and billed it as the World Rapi ...

with a score of 9.5/13 and performance rating of 2749, finishing 9th place on tiebreaks and failing to advance to the knockout stage. His FIDE blitz rating increased to a 2720, ranking #18 in the World, and #5 in the US. In 2024, Naroditsky was accused by former World Champion

Vladimir Kramnik Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik (; born 25 June 1975) is a Russian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster. He was the World Chess Champion#Split title (1993–2006), Classical World Chess Champion from 2000 to 2006, and the 14th undisputed World Ch ...

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 Christopher Hikaru NakamuraChess Life The monthly ''Chess Life'' and bi-monthly ''Chess Life Kids'' (formerly ''School Mates'' and ''Chess Life for Kids'') are the official magazines published by the United States Chess Federation (US Chess). ''Chess Life'' is advertised as the "m ...

'' Magazine, 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 ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

''. Since 2020, he has been the Grandmaster-in-Residence of the Charlotte Chess Center. Naroditsky is an active content creator on YouTube and Twitch, where he has over 463,000 subscribers and 336,000 followers, respectively.

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. Naroditsky attended high school at Crystal Springs Uplands School in

Hillsborough, California Hillsborough is an List of municipalities in California, incorporated town in San Mateo County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is located south of San Francisco on the San Francisco Peninsula, bordered by Burlinga ...

. He attended

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

until 2019, studying history.https://www.charlottechesscenter.org/staff Charlotte Chess Center Staff Page He has resided in

Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 United ...

since 2020.

Books

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References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Naroditsky, Daniel 1995 births Living people American chess players American chess writers American male non-fiction writers 21st-century American Jews Chess Grandmasters Jewish chess players Sportspeople from San Mateo, California World Youth Chess Champions American Twitch (service) streamers Stanford University alumni American YouTubers