Daniel Naroditsky

Daniel Naroditsky (November 9, 1995 – October 19, 2025) was an American chess grandmaster, author, coach, commentator, and prominent online streamer renowned for his educational content and influence on the chess community. Born in San Mateo, California, he learned the game from his father at age six and quickly emerged as a prodigy, becoming the youngest published chess author in history with his book Mastering Positional Chess at age 14.

Naroditsky achieved the grandmaster title in 2013 and earned a gold medal in the Under-12 category at the World Youth Chess Championship, winning the U.S. Junior Championship in 2013 and tying for first in events like the 2019 U.S. Masters while maintaining the No. 1 ranking in his age group for eight years. As a resident grandmaster at the Charlotte Chess Center in North Carolina, where he resided since 2019, he coached players and commentated on major events, while his streaming career on platforms like Chess.com and Twitch popularized advanced chess strategies through series like speedruns of historical games.

Daniel Naroditsky was born on November 9, 1995, in San Mateo, California, to a Jewish family of immigrants from the former Soviet Union. His father, Vladimir Naroditsky, was a mathematician originally from Ukraine, while his mother, Lena Schuman, was a pianist from Azerbaijan; the family settled in the San Francisco Bay Area, where Daniel grew up.