World Chess Weekly: Fallout From Naroditsky's Death Dominates, Caruana Leads U.S. Champs

It's hard to put into words what's been going on in chess over the past week.

Two huge tournaments have been taking place, with a host of top players in action. But events over the board have paled into insignificance compared to the tragic and hugely-controversial events off it.

It is no exaggeration to say the chess world was shaken to its core on Monday when the death of GM Daniel Naroditsky was announced.

The story of a tragic 29-year-old grandmaster shot to the top of news media agendas worldwide. Nearly every major publication carried it putting chess, for awful reasons, in the spotlight.

But then, while tributes were flooding in, came controversy.

Immediately as the news broke, former World Champion GM Vladimir Kramnik was accused online of bullying Naroditsky for a year prior to his death. Kramnik is a relentless campaigner for fair play in chess and had implied many times that he had suspicions about Naroditsky.

During his final Twitch stream last week, Naroditsky spoke about the mental toll Kramnik’s comments had taken on him.

Kramnik has denied any wrongdoing and has since threated to sue anyone pointing the finger at him. The news media picked up on all these angles and reported the story. It has since become a feeding frenzy.

Russian-born Kramnik, who lives in Switzerland, has also been involved in several very public exchanges, not least with the normally restrained GM Wesley So, as several top grandmasters have given their views.

World number-two Hikaru Nakamura weighed in, describing Kramnik's perceived cheating as “nonsense” and “insane.” GM Nihal Sarin also criticized Kramnik on X saying, "Daniel's smile faded after the attacks began. We all saw it."

If Naroditsky's death was not sad enough, seeing the chess community tear itself apart has only made it worse.

On Thursday, under pressure from vocal members of the chess community worldwide calling for Kramnik's head, the world governing body FIDE said it is launching an ethics investigation into Kramnik's comments online about Naroditsky.

The organization's president Arkady Dvorkovich issued a statement saying he will "formally refer all relevant public statements made by GM Vladimir Kramnik — both before and after the tragic death of GM Daniel Naroditsky — to the FIDE Ethics and Disciplinary Commission for independent consideration."

Dvorkovich told CNN that "any kind of sanction is possible" for Kramnik.

In response, Kramnik described FIDE's investigation as "insulting," "unfair" and "orchestrating a shameful campaign of harassment against me and my loved ones."

By Friday, the fallout is showing no signs of subsiding.

Who knows where that investigation will go—or how long it will take. But this is certainly a huge moment for the game.

In chess, being a cheat is bad. But making false allegations of cheating is possibly worse. Especially, if this is the potential consequence. There is a huge swell of opinion that something should be done.

The rights and wrongs of all that, we can't comment on. However, let's be clear, Naroditsky was one of the most beloved players in the game. Players and fans at all levels respected him. There was also no evidence that he cheated, ever.

Also, no cause of death has been made public yet. We do not know the details. What exactly happened will become clear when the authorities have done their work.

In a heart-breaking interview with Fox News, Naroditsky’s mother Elena said: "There was nothing more important to Daniel than his dignity and his name as a chess player."

Questions are also being asked of FIDE and about whether officials charged with upholding ethics in the game have mishandled the situation. Let's see how FIDE responds.

The fallout from Naroditsky’s death, and not just the sadness, will continue for a very long time.

Over The Board

While all this was going on, there was the small matter of the U.S. Championships in Saint Louis and the European Clup Cup in Rhodes, Greece.

Both tournaments took time to pay tribute to Naroditsky before play started. This was particularly poignant at the U.S. Champs where many of Naroditsky's long-time friends were in action.

As it stands, GM Fabiano Caruana is on the brink of being crowned U.S. Champion for the fifth time.

Going into the final round, Caruana is half a point ahead of So and is odds-on to win the title for the fourth time in a row. Can anyone stop him?

The Women's event has been wide open and spectacular to watch. IM Carissa Yip will go into the final round on Friday as the sole leader after scoring 5.5/6.

Meanwhile, In Europe

In Rhodes, the European Club Cup has also created some storylines. The event has a star-studded line-up including GMs Gukesh D, Arjun Erigaisi, Vincent Keymer and FIDE Grand Swiss winner Anish Giri.

Gukesh and Giri played in Round 5 and the Dutchman appeared to have India's world champion in trouble by move 13. But Gukesh recovered to save the draw.

After five rounds, only two teams in the Open section maintained the perfect score and co-lead with only two rounds to go: Alkaloid and SuperChess, while Cercle d’Echecs de Monte-Carlo kept the sole lead in the Women’s event.

A full report of the event is available here.

In Round 1, 10-year-old WFM Bodhana Sivanandan scored a stunning win over former Women's World Champion GM Mariya Muzychuk.

Results have seen GM Divya Deshmukh move back into the 2500 club with a 22-move win in Round 4. Deshmukh appeared to apologise to the clock at one point, which amused onlookers.

The popular Hungarian-Romanian GM Richard Rapport, known for his creative play, is back in the top 15 rankings on the live list after starting with 3/3.

And there was the moment that showed elite chess is not just about misery and darkness when Polish IM Sebastian Poltorak showed his kindness by offering a draw when his opponent, GM Aleksandar Indjic, fell ill inside the playing hall and had to leave.

What a week.