r/Chess

The One Year Passing of GM Daniel Naroditsky

2026-10-19T11:37:15+00:00

Danya commentating at the 2024 US Masters

This post will be a bit personal as well as business. Many of you know that I am the Communications Manager for the Charlotte Chess Center, and you've gotten to know that because of the discussions we've had here about Danya, his passing, the Memorial, and now we have the upcoming Fellowship. Also I'm the most long-winded person ever, so be prepared for a lengthy post.

I hate that when I mentally think of my past year, it doesn't begin in January, it begins on October 20th, which is when I found out about Danya's passing -- when CCC Executive Director and Danya's best friend, Peter Giannatos, told me "Whatever you do, don't look on our socials." I of course immediately looked and thought we were hacked, but when he told me it was true, I cried so hard my husband ran into my office trying to figure out what was wrong. All I could do was point at my screen.

Since that day, many lives have been upended. As a mother myself, I cannot imagine the pain Elena, his mother, has been through. His brother's children will not know their uncle, and many holidays will be absent one member. For Peter and Sasha, I cannot comprehend how they managed to wake up the next day, and the next day, and the next day. I've hugged crying students. One student made a chess.com page that continues to have a countdown of days it has been since Danya passed. Danya's personal student wrote a note and gave it to Peter to be buried with Danya. I've helped friends, family, students, players, organizations etc. And who am I? I was just a colleague and a chess mom. Close enough to help and be supportive, but far enough away that I could still function.

The CCC was thrust in the global spotlight in a way that I was not prepared for. We are, at our core, a small business. We were approached by NBC, CNN, BBC, Daily News, NY Times, Time Magazine -- I can't even remember all of them. I kicked reporters out of the CCC while tournaments were happening and told them to stop harassing our kids. Because despite Danya's overwhelming presence, many of our littles haven't interacted with him. No reason to make them and parents uncomfortable. Many of us hunkered down and kept to ourselves while we processed what our community would become without our shining star.

And I don't mean that just from his reputation. For months, we've heard condolences, stories, bittersweet moments from those who met Danya. How could we not? We was so uniquely special--kind and brilliant and funny and notoriously witty and just this amazingly wonderful person. He'd be a shining star even without the fame.

I know a lot of you had doubts about our intentions with the fundraiser and the Naroditsky fund. We've been challenged, called names, threatened, and more. I hope this has since been alleviated a bit with the Naroditsky Memorial (NMRB) and the Naroditsky Fellowship, which will give $50,000 to promising American Junior players, much like the Samford Fellowship that Danya himself received. I do not think there has been a single day of work in the past year where I have not thought about Danya or ensuring his legacy. And this is true for many of us--we're already planning the next NMRB and are announcing the Fellowship committee today.

In fact, let me say it here.

The Naroditsky Fellowship Committee is comprised of:

Chair - IA Grant Oen (CCC Events Director and close friend of Danya)
Hikaru Nakamura
Sam Shankland
Robert Hess
Kayden Troff
John Bartholomew
Eric Rosen

If any of you know anything about Danya, you'll understand why those players were chosen.

My life, Peter's life, Grant's life, and the CCC in general has spent a large part of the last year honoring Danya and working hard to secure his legacy. Cliche or not, love it or leave it, but people say that the time someone really dies is the last time their name is uttered. In that way, we want to ensure Danya never dies.

But honestly, I'd rather just have him here, and have him home, and teaching our students, and streaming. I want him constantly making me laugh during long photography sessions. I want to be his bodyguard again and shoo away people when he was worn out.

I know many of us will be feeling a renewed sense of grief. I am always a mess leading up to the anniversary of my father's passing, and I know many of you--despite not necessarily being physically close to Danya--will be feeling similarly. Please be good and be well today, to both yourself and others.

Thanks for reading,

Kelly

submitted by /u/ChessKelly
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Weekly Discussion & Tournament Thread Index - October 19, 2026 [Mod Applications Welcome]

2026-10-19T04:00:59+00:00

r/chess Weekly Discussion Thread

You are welcome to ask here all kinds of chess-related questions that don't warrant their own post. You can also discuss or ask questions about upcoming tournaments that don't have their own thread yet.

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OPEN CALL for new moderators! Interested in: creating event posts, hosting AMAs, making sure only the finest queen sacrifice puzzles make the front page? Apply Now!

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Interested in making threads for tournaments, but don't know where to start? Our Event Template page is a great way to get the basic layout.

An alternative would be to start a subthread directly in the weekly thread.

Announcements

REWORK OF r/chess RULES

UPDATED Oct 30th 2025 - Mod Announcement: New temporary measures to help manage the sub

Recent AMAs

Active Tournament Threads

DATES	EVENT
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Other Active Tournaments Web Links

DATES	EVENT
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Upcoming Tournament Schedule

DATES	EVENT	NOTABLE PLAYERS
Nov 10-20	Total Chess World Championship Tour Pilot 2026	Carlsen, Caruana, Firouzja, Praggnanandhaa
Nov 24 - Dec 12	FIDE World Chess Championship 2026	Gukesh, Sindarov

Recently Completed Tournaments

DATES	EVENT	WINNER
Sept 16-27	2026 FIDE Chess Olympiad	Open: Uzbekistan ; Women: China
Sept 5-13	2026 Global Chess League	Ganges Grandmasters
Aug 22-27	2026 Grand Chess Tour Finals	Praggnanandhaa R
Aug 10-19	2026 Sinquefield Cup & Cairns Cup	Wesley So & Tan Zhongyi
Aug 11-15	2026 Esports World Cup	Magnus Carlsen
Aug 2-6	2026 Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz	Praggnanandhaa R
July 16-22	2026 Quantbox Chennai Grand Masters	Alireza Firouzja
July 3-5	2026 Naroditsky Memorial Rapid and Blitz	Javokhir Sindarov
July 1-5	2026 Super Rapid & Blitz Croatia	Alireza Firouzja
June 24-27	2026 Bullet Chess Championship	Nihal Sarin
June 17-21	2026 FIDE World Rapid & Blitz Team Chess Championships	Dragon Chilling
June 7-15	2026 UzChess Cup	Mukhiddin Madaminov
May 25 - June 5	2026 Norway Chess	Praggnanandhaa R & Bibisara Assaubayeva
May 14-23	2026 Super Chess Classic Romania	Vincent Keymer
May 5-9	2026 Super Rapid & Blitz Poland	Hans Niemann
May 1-7	2026 TePe Sigeman & Co Chess Tournament	Magnus Carlsen
Mar 29 - Apr 15	2026 FIDE Candidates Tournament	Javokhir Sindarov & Vaishali Rameshbabu
Mar 2-12	2026 American Cup	Wesley So & Alice Lee
Feb 25 - Mar 6	2026 Prague Masters	Nodirbek Abdusattorov
Feb 13-15	2026 FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship	Magnus Carlsen
Jan 16 - Feb 1	2026 Tata Steel Chess Masters	Nodirbek Abdusattorov
Jan 7-11	2026 Tata Steel Chess India Rapid & Blitz	Rapid: Nihal Sarin & Kateryna Lagno ; Blitz: Wesley So & Carissa Yip

Some links where to find a list of current (or just completed) tournaments

Other Notable Threads

Coach a Player - Recent Threads

Community Content

Here we'd love to highlight community content to show our appreciation for the energy spent. Content like Game analysis, info-graphics, etc., and we'd love to hear from you what kind of content you'd like to see as well.

Want to post your game to r/chess? - for people who want to solicit feedback on their games

Advice to people asking for advice - for people who want to ask about how to improve

submitted by /u/events_team
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Bodhana Sivanandan, becomes the youngest Female IM. Beat Polgar's record from 38 years ago.

2026-10-25T06:52:57+00:00

submitted by /u/RogueBromeliad
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Nodirbek Abdusattorov reveals Hans Niemann is the one player he frequently texts outside of Chess

2026-10-24T17:57:30+00:00

submitted by /u/Aggravating-Alps4621
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Who do you think is going to win clutch chess 2026??

2026-10-24T22:43:14+00:00

Formate :- The Clutch Chess: Champions Showdown is a double round-robin with a 10+5 rapid time control, where each win is worth more each day.

submitted by /u/Odd_Conference_4994
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11 years old Roman Shogdzhiev: Will he beat Mishra's yojngest GM record?

2026-10-24T18:54:25+00:00

Roman Shogdzhiev was born on February 2015. So, he still have 4 months before turning 12 years old.

Mishra became a GM too when he waz 12 years old. So, the record is in danger of being broken.

Roman already earned 2 GM norms this year. Including the Serbian league. (First Picture). Roman played superb whole tournament.

In European Club Chess (Second picture), Roman played decently. Earning 13 ELO.

Roman played excellent this tournament. His live ELO is 2484. Only 16 points away for minimum elo (2500) requirements for Fide to grant a GM title.

PS: Ik some of you doesn't care about the record. But that will always attract more invitations and oppprtunities.

submitted by /u/BasketVolleyball11
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What are all the chess "adages" or common wisdom?

2026-10-24T20:17:40+00:00

Im talking about things like "dont trade when you have a space advantage" or "open the center when you have the bishop pair"? Not stuff like "checks captures and threats" or "sit on your hands", but specific pieces of advice with states of the board.

submitted by /u/TheUn-Nottened
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Individual top performances per board at the 41st European Chess Club Cup

2026-10-24T22:01:32+00:00

source

submitted by /u/pier4r
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Kazchess Masters Almaty field

2026-10-24T20:43:29+00:00

https://preview.redd.it/fqc5qxdf8hxh1.png?width=1060&format=png&auto=webp&s=79af857e465b19323f695d676e2146a5eee7f725

four foreigners and four kazakhs as usual, very interesting field with Dubov, Lazavik and Muradli especially. The four kazakhs are mostly juniors (except Makhnev who is 25-26 iirc).

submitted by /u/SteChess
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Import chess positions from images on the Lichess mobile app!

2026-10-24T21:31:14+00:00

submitted by /u/somethingpretentious
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How realistic is to win this position as black

2026-10-24T19:19:03+00:00

I played a game with my friend, then my internet connection dropped and I lost on time.

I sent this position to my 1900 elo friend and he is confident that he can win as black from this position with anybody under 1900.

Computer evaluates the position as draw, if we trade queens.

But practically speaking, it is easier to play as black than as white in my opinion, as black can double its rooks.

How easy is to win this position as black for you? :-)

I think, my friend is just over confident :)

submitted by /u/Crafty-Nebula8529
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New to chess (2 months) and getting clobbered by people using no time.

2026-10-25T01:09:04+00:00

I've only been playing for a couple months and I've been hovering around 350-450 elo on chess.com with a ~50% win rate. I play either 15+10 or just 10 mins. I lot of games are happening very fast from my opponent, like I'm trying to use my time and think but of course I suck - I know I suck lol. But why are these people in the same awful rank as me speed running my a** effectively?

It's just kind of jarring because I've watched a lot of various chess youtubers' speedruns (Naroditsky, Dina Belenkaya) and honestly the people they play are doing the most ridiculous stuff sub-800 and I do not see this behavior in my games much. And sure I have a 50% win rate so by the numbers I may be exactly where I am supposed to be, but the people I play don't seem like they belong here with me quite often. Games are either a real long battle where eventually one of us makes a mistake, or I get styled on with very little time spent.

submitted by /u/AzIsHotYo
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A small white to play and win

2026-10-24T15:26:18+00:00

submitted by /u/Sea-Albatross-2414
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White to play and win (By Zinar)

2026-10-24T17:24:20+00:00

submitted by /u/Sea-Albatross-2414
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Are bots playing in the regular rated pool now.

2026-10-24T18:13:37+00:00

I won't be posting accounts even if I think I played a bot but this girl sent me a friend request. She was 1300 but played more like a 2200. She was real chatty in chat but didn't sound like a person and said things that didn't make sense. She asked if I could tell us about my challenges. I noticed she resigned her last 7 games early and I asked about her losing streak. I say her even though i thought it's a bot at this point. She said her opponents had to take other challenges. She was very friendly aside from a moment where she said i was rude for not answering her question, then she went right back to being friendly. Who would make such an account. I don't know what that was

submitted by /u/OkSeaworthiness6581
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11-year-old Bodhana Sivanandan earns final IM norm at the European Club Cup, becoming IM-elect and breaking Judit Polgar's 38-year-old record as the youngest female International Master by 8 months!

2026-10-23T15:44:22+00:00

link to game https://www.chess.com/events/2026-european-club-cup-women/07/Johansson_Viktoria-Sivanandan_Bodhana

submitted by /u/Apprehensive-Ad6998
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Did anyone feel the loss of Daniel Narodistky on a heavily personal level?

2026-10-23T23:38:50+00:00

Like the title says, he’s probably the first celebrity I’ve ever truly FELT the loss of. I spent multiple days in actual grief over the guy. And even this past week, after the first anniversary of his death, I felt so damn much. But yeah, I’ve been wondering if it was just me.

Because I see so many comments on his videos till date. And not just from a year ago. They’re left 10 months ago, 9 months ago, even 3 months ago.

submitted by /u/DDT126
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If you could recommend one book for opening strategy, one for middle game and one for end game, which three would they be?

2026-10-24T19:41:16+00:00

Im a relatively beginner looking to increase my game.

submitted by /u/Benzino_831
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King’s Gambit rare line?

2026-10-24T20:58:21+00:00

I got destroyed against the King’s Gambit after playing 4..g4 5.Ne5 h5?! 6.Bc4 Nh6?! and losing the f4 pawn after 7.d4.

I can’t find much information on this variation, but it’s the only move against 4.h4 with a positive score for black on lichess. The main idea is 5.exd5 g4 6.Ne5 Qe7, which wouldn’t pin the knight without the addition of d5 exd5.

Are there any courses or studies on this? Is this worth playing?

submitted by /u/Rubicon_Lily
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Help with Evaluation

2026-10-25T02:26:44+00:00

Yo, I'm new to chess. Going through an evaluation of a game and the computer really wanted me to push my knight to d4 and I just don't understand why. I would love an explanation why 🤙

submitted by /u/flamingtoast12349
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How to play real chess after learning chess online.

2026-10-24T19:57:08+00:00

Started learning chess this month and hit 1k elo after a month of intensive online learning.

When I tried to play real chess, like the physical chess on chess board with my friends,
I found out I cannot play it at all. I just kept missing everything.
The 3d looks way different from 2d chess.

So how do I transit? The problem is, I cannot really practice it.

submitted by /u/wayloo47
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Gukesh, Sindarov,Hikaru, Wei Yi, Anand, Ding, Dominguez refused to play in 2026 Total Chess Pilot (Fast Classical)

2026-10-23T19:52:04+00:00

We will finally see Norway's special event called Total Chess Fast Classical Pilot. (Heavily theorized that it is made for Carlsen to be active again in 2027 with the full tour)

We will have a pilot tournament in a few days. And yes, the time format is fast classical (45 + 30) BUT it will affect players standard classical rating. (Not rapid or blitz)

Some players declined to participate though. Ofc, Gukesh and Sindarov are obvious why. They will play the WCC in the same month.

But Hikaru, Ding, Wei, Dominguez, and Anand all declined even if they qualified for the Pilot tournament.

Who do you think will win this?

My brain thinks its Magnus. But I am rooting for Wesley as a Filipino.

submitted by /u/BasketVolleyball11
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Career Ending Move

2026-10-25T01:12:17+00:00

A move i never got to play but im very happy with 🤓

submitted by /u/LilTooSmall
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I've started deliberately trading queens.

2026-10-23T21:15:33+00:00

I used to absolutely hate trading queens but then I saw a video that said if you trade queens, it's a lot less likely that you'll be checkmated so I thought I'd give it a go and so far I've been winning much more. It also allows me to relax a lot more in the game which I know sounds pretty stupid. The only thing I see maybe being a bit of a problem is this doesn't really happen in any openings that I've been learning. However, my tactical play has got a lot better and I've learnt a lot more about how the pieces work together. My questions are, is this a good strategy? Would you recommend to keep learning an opening? (I like the Vienna, but it doesn't always work for me since I don't know too much about it tbh). Also, I'm 850ish.

submitted by /u/DoughnutEffective668
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En Croissant Repertoire issue

2026-10-24T14:29:28+00:00

Yeah so basically, I used en croissant to analyse a position that stems from the albin countergambit. The position is valuated as +1, but I thought it is very hard to play for a human. So I clicked the "play from here" button and let 2 engines play against each other. And after the match I clicked "analyse" and all of a sudden, the pgn from the match replaced my original analysis of the opening including some other sidelines that i analysed. Has anybody encountered the same problem or found methods to work around this problem?

submitted by /u/aku-_
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