CHENNAI: For over two weeks in Singapore at the World Championships last November and December, GM Daniel Naroditsky had inadvertently become my eyes and ears. I had covered elite chess before but this was going to be my first taste of the title match. This was going to be big because of the presence of D Gukesh, the first Indian to take part in the title match since Viswanathan Anand in 2014. Now, I knew how the pieces moved but my understanding of the game was fairly limited. I relied on engines and had next to no knowledge on openings, middlegames and endgames.
So, finding a stream was going to be super critical to understand the nuances of the game unfolding in my front of my eyes. There were a lot of streams and streamers but I was hooked onto chess24's broadcast right from the first game. It had Judit Polgar, the Hungarian GM who raved about Gukesh's play at the Olympiad in Mahabalipuram. That's kind of why I stayed on that stream. Seeing the game from her perspective, I thought, could allow me to understand the game better.
Hours into the opening game I was hooked onto the stream because of Naroditsky, the other GM as part of the broadcast. He had the rare gift of dumbing down chess to newbies. He broke it down in capsules so it was easier to understand what was happening at any given point of time. For a journalist tasked with writing about two men looking at a chess board from the outside, the US GM's thoughts was a window into the world of a chess educator who wanted to keep it simple for the viewers back home. Here was an ace player, a child prodigy who had blasted his way to records and age-group world titles, capturing the essence of the game whilst ensuring he didn't dilute what was happening on the board. If Polgar (Peter Leko also used to appear on the broadcast) was the elder statesperson in the commentary panel, Naroditsky was the pundit bringing in colour to proceedings. But his observations were equally sharp.
To give one example, the likes of Polgar and Leko wouldn't take a line to its bitter end. If they thought it was a dead end at the beginning, they would shun it but the viewers, casual fans among them, would be left confused. Why was the Qf4 five moves down the line a problem? Naroditsky, known for his ambitious and extra aggressive speed chess games, would take the line to its bitter end with Leko gently chiding him in the process. "Danya, black is going to be mated in three," he would say. The US GM, somebody who always had a ready smile on his face for the entirety of the Championship, would then suggest a variation before explaining to the viewers.
Whenever Danya, as he was known by within the wider chess community, was on, this stream was appointment listening. He used to analyse games using wit and allowed his co-panelists time on air. By the time the World Championships was over, I had already used a lot of "... according to Naroditsky on commentary".
After I came back, Naroditsky's games and his slick observations became a regular part of my diet across various social media clips — Insta reels, YouTube shorts or videos on Twitter. Apart from Levy Rozman (GothamChess), the 29-year-old Naroditsky became my favourite educator because he spoke in a language I understood.
When I was assigned to cover the upcoming World Cup in India, I was looking forward to meeting him if I got the opportunity to do so. If nothing but to just thank him because he had helped me for over two weeks and I wanted him to know that. It's now a pain I will carry with me forever. It's also a pain the chess community will feel because the last two days has seen an outpouring of grief and sorrow. Pain that a beautiful life has been cut short in the most tragic of circumstances.
Go well, king. Go well in the knowledge that you were loved and you managed to touch a lot of lives, even the ones on the other side of the world.
