Former world chess champion Vladimir Kramnik filed a complaint with Swiss authorities over threatening messages posted in the wake of the death of US grandmaster Daniel Naroditsky, a frequent target of Kramnik’s cheating allegations, reports Reuters.
The news agency reviewed the nine-page complaint submitted to the Geneva public prosecutor on Saturday, detailing the “hundreds of terrifying private messages and public comments” on social media directed at Kramnik and his family. Many called for his death, threats echoed in emails also seen by Reuters.
No suspects are named in the filing, which cites numerous threatening and abusive messages posted on X (formerly Twitter) since 19 October, when popular streamer, commenter and chess grandmaster Daniel ‘Danya’ Naroditsky was found dead in his North Carolina home.
Naroditsky’s sudden death prompted an outpouring of grief and an ethics review by the International Chess Federation (FIDE) into Kramnik, who spent over a year hounding the American grandmaster with accusations of cheating.
Naroditsky denied any wrongdoing and in his final Twitch stream, filmed 17 October, appeared visibly distressed when speaking about the “lingering effect” of Kramnik’s allegations. The video has since been deleted.
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Elena Naroditsky told the Daily Mail of her son’s tireless efforts to defend himself, playing “more and more” to prove he wasn’t what he was accused of. “There was nothing more important to Daniel than his dignity and his name as a chess player,” she said.
Many prominent figures in the chess world have also criticised 50-year-old Kramnik, in sometimes heated language, for his conduct toward the young grandmaster.
“The relentless, baseless accusations and public interrogations [Daniel] faced in recent months caused him immense pressure and pain,” 21-year-old Indian grandmaster Nihal Sarin wrote on X after Naroditsky’s death. “This has to stop. When respected figures spread unfounded allegations without accountability, real lives are destroyed.”
Writing in a statement posted to X on Saturday Kramnik said that he had “never made any personal attack or insult towards Daniel Naroditsky” and was “the only person in the chess community” concerned about the 29-year-old’s mental health.
X users responded by appending a link to an El País article detailing Kramnik’s repeated allegations, his derisive response to the final stream and the genuine affection for Naroditsky in the chess community. “The whole world was on Daniel’s side,” his mother told the Daily Mail.
