{"id":422090,"date":"2026-01-22T03:31:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T03:31:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/422090\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T03:31:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T03:31:11","slug":"chess-grandmaster-daniel-naroditsky-died-of-heart-problems-from-accidental-overdose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/422090\/","title":{"rendered":"Chess grandmaster Daniel Naroditsky died of heart problems from accidental overdose"},"content":{"rendered":"

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) \u2014 Daniel Naroditsky, an influential American chess grandmaster who was found dead<\/a> at his North Carolina home in October at age 29, had multiple drugs in his system at the time and was killed by an abnormal heartbeat caused by an accidental overdose, according to a toxicology report. <\/p>\n

Released Tuesday by the North Carolina Medical Examiner\u2019s Office, the report said Naroditsky tested positive for methamphetamine and kratom, an opioid-related ingredient that is increasingly added to energy drinks, gummies and supplements.<\/p>\n

Naroditsky was last known to be alive on Oct. 18 when he accepted a food delivery. He was found dead the next day after missing a flight, according to the report.<\/p>\n

Friends went to Naroditsky\u2019s house two days before his death after he appeared to be acting strangely online, and they took away 40 pills of the stimulant Adderall. Investigators later also found bags of kratom in the home, according the report. <\/p>\n

Naroditsky was a child prodigy who became a grandmaster, the highest title in chess aside from World Chess Champion, at age 18. <\/p>\n

Fellow grandmasters credited him with introducing the sport<\/a> to a wider audience by livestreaming many of his matches and sharing live commentary on others. Thousands of people regularly tuned in on YouTube and the interactive streaming platform Twitch to watch Naroditsky play. <\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

\"Russian<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"Primatologist<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

High-speed competitive speed chess flourished during the COVID-19 pandemic, creating a chess community<\/a> that was soon rife with cheating allegations as players gained access to sophisticated computer programs that could give them an unfair advantage.<\/p>\n

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Stay up to date with the news and the best of AP by following our WhatsApp channel.<\/p>\n


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Naroditsky was accused of cheating by former World Chess Champion Vladimir Kramnik<\/a>. He denied the allegations, which were not proven. <\/p>\n

In his last livestream before his death, Naroditsky said the allegations had taken a toll on him. <\/p>\n

\u201cEver 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,\u201d Naroditsky said. <\/p>\n

The International Chess Federation filed a formal complaint<\/a> against Kramnik in November, accusing him of harassment and insulting the dignity of fellow players. <\/p>\n

Kramnik, who called the federation\u2019s investigation \u201cinsulting and fair,\u201d in turn filed a defamation lawsuit against the organization the following month. <\/p>\n

In a post<\/a> Tuesday on the social platform X, he said that Naroditsky\u2019s death an \u201cimmense tragedy\u201d and that in the immediate aftermath, \u201ca cynical smear campaign was launched, unjustly linking me \u2014 without any factual basis \u2014 to Daniel\u2019s untimely death.\u201d <\/p>\n

Kramnik said that was followed by \u201cmultiple direct murder threats directed at me, my wife and my children, which compelled me to pursue legal action.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter viewing portions of his last stream and despite our existing tensions, I publicly urged Daniel\u2019s friends \u2014 on what tragically turned out to be the morning of his death \u2014 to look after and seek urgent help for him,\u201d Kramnik added. \u201cRegrettably, those efforts were in vain.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) \u2014 Daniel Naroditsky, an influential American chess grandmaster who was found dead at his North…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69712,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[116929,133321,793,97,243,57596,3508,2256,200479,99,795,134301],"class_list":["post-422090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-chess","tag-daniel-naroditsky","tag-general-news","tag-health","tag-medication","tag-methamphetamines","tag-nc-state-wire","tag-north-carolina","tag-send-to-apple-news","tag-sports","tag-u-s-news","tag-vladimir-kramnik"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422090\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}