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Vladimir Kramnik repeatedly accused fellow chess grandmaster Daniel Naroditsky of cheating in the year before his death.
Published On 23 Oct 2025
Chess’s governing body has said it is considering disciplinary action against Russian former world champion Vladimir Kramnik over unproven cheating allegations he repeatedly levelled against fellow player Daniel Naroditsky in the year leading up to the latter’s death.
International Chess Federation (FIDE) president, Arkady Dvorkovich, said on Wednesday that the game’s governing body was investigating public statements and social media posts made by Kramnik accusing Naroditsky, a 29-year-old American grandmaster, of cheating.
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Dvorkovich said he had referred all relevant posts by Kramnik to the body’s Ethics and Disciplinary Commission for review, adding that the federation would take “appropriate action” in cases of public harassment or bullying.
On Monday, Naroditsky’s chess club, the Charlotte Chess Center in North Carolina, released a statement announcing his sudden death. A chess prodigy, Naroditsky’s passing has shocked the game’s followers and players. No cause of death has been made public.
California-born Naroditsky became a grandmaster — the highest title in chess aside from world chess champion — at the age of 18. The son of Soviet immigrants to the US, Naroditsky was consistently ranked in the world top 200 for traditional chess and the top 25 for blitz chess, a high-speed version. In August, he won the US National Blitz Championship.
Naroditsky had once said that Kramnik used to be one of his “heroes”.
But last October, Kramnik, who held the chess world crown for several years in the early 2000s, began accusing Dvorkovich of cheating in online chess.
The Russian grandmaster has reiterated those accusations in several social media posts over the past year. He has not provided substantial evidence for his claims.
Naroditsky accused Kramnik of trying to ruin his life, admitting during a 2024 Twitch stream that the “constant online negativity” was causing him to suffer from bouts of burnout and anxiety.
During his final livestream on Saturday, Naroditsky told his massive online following that, “ever since the Kramnik stuff, I feel like if I start doing well, people assume the worst of intentions. The issue is just the lingering effect of it”.
— Vladimir Kramnik (@VBkramnik) October 18, 2025
There are no documented reports of the federation investigating Naroditsky. According to the chess governing body’s anti-cheating laws, it may sanction a player who makes unfounded accusations based on emotion or insufficient data.
In the days following Naroditsky’s death, Kramnik has taken to X to defend himself against suggestions he is culpable, saying in one post that “all those falsely blaming me will be legally responsible”.
In another post, he posted an image with the caption “don’t do drugs”, while also referencing a “strange recent stream” by Naroditsky.
Many of the biggest names in contemporary chess have come out to condemn Kramnik’s pursuit of Naroditsky.
Five-time world chess champion Magnus Carlsen called his harassment campaign “appalling”, while Indian grandmaster Nihal Sarin condemned the “relentless, baseless accusations and public interrogations”.
“This has to stop. When respected figures spread unfounded allegations without accountability, real lives are destroyed,” Sarin wrote on X.
Naroditsky was not the first player Kramnik has accused of cheating.
The former world champion’s anti-cheating allegations erupted first during the COVID-19 pandemic, when many elite players went online to continue playing through lockdown. In the digital arena, hard-to-prove cheating allegations have grown rampant.
In 2023, Kramnik’s blog on popular internet chess server Chess.com was shut down, with administrators accusing him of spreading baseless allegations about “many dozens of players”.
Czech grandmaster David Navara, who also faced accusations of cheating from Kramnik, said he had been pushed to consider suicide. Kramnik responded by accusing Navara of defamation.
