World No.1 Magnus Carlsen was the latest to react at the sudden death of Daniel Naroditsky on Monday night with the 5-time World Champion saying that the way Vladimir Kramnik went after the 29-year-old with his allegations of cheating was ‘horrible.
After Naroditsky’s news of passing came to light, there has been growing speculation around the role that accusations of cheating from former world champion Kramnik played in the tragedy. Kramnik had repeatedly accused Naroditsky of cheating in online chess, something that the latter admitted late last year had affected him.
“With the whole Kramnik situation not only with Naroditsky, from the beginning I would say. Obviously I have had problems with him in the past, not like big problems but generally, for all his greatness, generally, he thought that he was somebody who had a bit of a better reputation than that he deserved for many reasons. But I did feel from the very start that he when he was going through some kind of ‘crusade’ against cheating online, I did feel that, at the start, I didn’t agree with his numbers. I thought at the end of the day he is kind of fighting the good fight,” Carlsen said in video uploaded on the “Take Take Take” X account on Tuesday.
“It’s a great loss. It’s very sad for all of us that somebody who was such a resource to the chess community and also had a universally high approval rating from everybody he met was led to the place that he was.”@MagnusCarlsen on the passing of Daniel Naroditsky. pic.twitter.com/BQJ9Flbp0J
— Take Take Take (@TakeTakeTakeApp) October 21, 2025
“But it turned on its head. First of all, he started to go after Hikaru (Nakamura) which seemed crazy. That was bad in itself but when he started going after Naroditsky so hard- first of all, I don’t think anybody thought Naroditsky was cheating. I know that coming from me, make of it what you will. Some people will say I have very little credibility on the matter but I personally in private expressed that I was sorry for what he was going through and supported him. Probably should have done that publicly as well but I think people can understand some of the reasons I was reluctant to. I thought, yeah, the way he was going after Naroditsky was horrible. Seeing how it affected him as well which was apparent now. I don’t have any more information. I don’t know what happened 2 days ago so I am not going to speculate on that. But regardless, even long before that it had clearly taken him to a point where he was not in a great space. So, again, make of what you will, coming from me but that was not good. It’s a great loss. It’s very sad for all of us that somebody who was such a resource to the chess community and also had a universally high approval rating from everybody he met was led to the place that he was,” the Norwegian added.
In December, Naroditsky had said on “Take Take Take” that cheating, according to him, is the worst crime a chess player can commit but what Kramnik did, according to him, makes “worse than dirt”.
In the hours after Naroditsky’s death was ann0unced on Monday, Kramnik hinted at potential substance abuse and deteriorating mental health. He first made a cryptic post on his X account that read, “Don’t Do Drugs.” He then referenced a “strange recent stream” by Naroditsky, alleging the American had been hastily removing his recent content from Twitch.
