Daniel Naroditsky, Charlotte chess grandmaster and coach, has died at age 29
Daniel Naroditsky, one of the world’s greatest chess champions and who coached at the Charlotte Chess Center, died unexpectedly on Monday, his family said. He was 29.
Naroditsky was a chess grandmaster and Stanford University graduate who was born and raised in the Bay area of California and moved to Charlotte to coach full-time in 2019, according to his bio on YouTube, where he had 495,000 followers.
A cause of death was not released.
“It is with great sadness that we share the unexpected passing of Daniel Naroditsky,” his family said in a statement on social media through the Charlotte Chess Center.
“Daniel was a talented chess player, commentator, and educator, and a cherished member of the chess community, admired and respected by fans and players around the world,” his family said. “He was also a loving son and brother, and a loyal friend to many.”
Chess grandmaster at 17
When Naroditsky was 6, his father and brother taught him to play chess, and five years later he became the Northern California K-12 champion, according to a 2022 article by Queens University News Service published in The Charlotte Observer.
He was 14 when he wrote his first book on chess. At 17, he became a grandmaster — the highest rank possible other than world champion.
After graduating from Stanford, he joined friend Peter Giannatos in Charlotte to teach the game. Giannatos founded the center in 2014. They had met at a chess camp at Emory University.
“We were kind of the few crazy people that would teach chess all day, and then stay up until like 2 a.m., playing blitz chess and ping pong in the staff lounge, knowing that we’d have to get up again the next day and go teach at like, 8 a.m.,” Giannatos told Queens University News Service.
When he moved to Charlotte, Noroditsky found a flourishing chess scene with a stable and supportive peer group.
“Most cities have a lot of people who like chess, because there’s just a lot of people who like chess,” Naroditsky said. “But most places don’t have an outlet to express that. You know, there’s a chess center, that’s sort of impeccable in every way.”
In their statement, Naroditsky’s family asked for privacy “during this extremely difficult time.”
“Let us remember Daniel for his passion and love for the game of chess, and for the joy and inspiration he brought to us all every day,” his family said.
This story was originally published October 21, 2025 at 10:53 AM.