Vladimir Kramnik, who faced widespread condemnation for accusing deceased American GM Daniel Naroditsky of online cheating without evidence, counter accused his own critics of mounting an “unprecedentedly cynical and unlawful campaign of harassment” against him and his family, in the aftermath.
Kramnik broke his silence issuing a statement to a bunch of media from CNN, Reuters, Euronews, Guardian, Figaro, Der Spiegel, NYT, ABC, LeTemps, El Paisin and Fox News.
The 50-year-old former world champion, wrote: “Despite the tensions in our relationship, I was the only person in the chess community who, noticing on video Daniel’s obvious health issues a day before his death, publicly called for him to receive help. The subsequent attempts, immediately following his passing, to directly link this tragic event to my name … cross all boundaries of basic human morality.”
Kramnik insists his earlier calls to review Naroditsky’s online play had been ignored “despite a significant amount of evidence”, and doubled down claiming he would provide material to “any relevant authority.”
The Russian also declared his lawyers were preparing civil and criminal suits over “false accusations” that led to hostility faced by him and his family.
1 Statement from my attorney
2 Screenshots of some of the pages with translation, from the official Criminal complain to the Court of Justice in Geneva, registered today pic.twitter.com/hENxhSEj1b— Vladimir Kramnik (@VBkramnik) October 25, 2025
Kramnik urged for a criminal investigation in the US into the circumstances of Naroditsky’s death and said he was forthcoming with “important non-public information.” According to Guardian, Naroditsky’s demise is being investigated as a possible suicide, according to a police report released on Thursday. ‘A report from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg police department says Naroditsky was found dead Sunday evening and describes the case as a “Death/suicide/overdose/Sudden/Natural Death Investigation,” Guardian wrote.
Kramnik ended the post by assuring that he was “in good physical and mental condition” and “under no circumstances” planned to take his own life.
Last Sunday, 911 responded to an assist medic call in the area of 9000 Colin Crossing and upon arrival an unresponsive subject was located and later pronounced deceased by a medic, the report stated. His close friends, grandmaster Oleksandr Bortnyk and Charlotte Chess Center founder Peter Giannatos had gone to check on him after the Stanford graduate, 29, stopped responding to calls and messages.
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“I found him dead in his house,” Bortnyk said in a stream this week. “We came to check because he wasn’t answering, and we found him dead on the couch.”
Naroditsky had 800,000 followers on Twitch and YouTube, and became a phenom known as Danya, in chess’s pandemic-era boom. Guardisn wrote, ‘He was also one of the world’s finest players under shorter time controls, finishing ninth at last year’s blitz world championship in New York.’
Naroditsky had consistently denied Kramnik’s sniping held any truth, but acknowledged they took a toll on his mental health. “Ever since the Kramnik stuff, I feel like if I start doing well, people assume the worst,” Naroditsky had said in his final livestream.
Hikaru Nakamura called Kramnik’s behavior “disgusting”, while five-time world champion Magnus Carlsen described it as “horrible”. Indian grandmaster Nihal Sarin, who played Naroditsky in his final online match, had told The Indian Express that Kramnik could be said to have “taken a life,” due to his vigilante hissing campaign against suspected cheaters, which he said had been ineffective and “completely unacceptable,” as quoted by Guardian.
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