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Journalism of Courage
After the shocking death of America Grandmaster Daniel Naroditsky on Monday, the chess world was shaken to its very foundation. With condolences pouring in from different parts of the world, there is a growing refrain that the 29-year-old was under severe stress after he was accused of cheating in online stress by former world champion Vladimir Kramnik.
Kramnik had, without substantial proof, repeatedly accused the American player of cheating while playing online – an allegation that Naroditsky had firmly denied. Last December, Naroditsky had said on “Take Take Take” that cheating, according to him, is the worst crime a chess player can commit but what Kramnik did, according to him, makes “worse than dirt”.
On Monday, hours after the news of Naroditsky’s had come to light, Kramnik hinted at potential substance abuse and deteriorating mental health. He first made a cryptic post on his X account that read, “Don’t Do Drugs.” He then referenced a “strange recent stream” by Naroditsky, alleging the American had been hastily removing his recent content from Twitch.
Born in Tuapse, Russia in 1975, Kramnik, by the age of 18, was playing with GMs Garry Kasparov, Anatoly Karpov, and Viswanathan Anand at the Linares tournament in 1993 where he finished fifth. In January 1996, he was tied for first in the FIDE ratings list.
In 2000, Kramnik defeated Kasparov to become the Classical World Chess Champion. In 2004, he defended his title against Peter Leko before coming up trumps against world champion Veselin Topalov in 2006 in a unification match which led to Kramnik becoming the first undisputed world champion, holding the FIDE and Classical titles. He lost to Viswanathan Anand in 2007 and after unsuccessfully challenging him again in 2008, played in four more Candidates tournaments between 2012 and 2018. He retired in 2019.
Kramnik had a positive record in standard games against Kasparov throughout his playing career and was also the only player besides his veteran country-mate to rank No.1 in the 20 years from 1985 to Kasparov’s retirement.
He is the man associated with resuscitating the abandoned Berlin Defence at the 2000 World Championship to nullify the attack of Kasparov so completely that the reigning world champion, with a voracious appetite for bulldozing through defences, ended with zero wins. He was the immovable object in front of Kasparov’s unstoppable force of an attack. He could fluster Kasparov, the most intimidating man in the sport.
In June of this year, Kramnik dragged David Navara to court when he filed a defamation lawsuit against the online chess platform chess.com, chess news organisation chessdom and Czech Republic Grandmaster. He wrote, “Civil defamation/slander case against @chesscom @chessdom and personally Mr. Navara registered today in Tribunal de Geneve Penal (Criminal) case takes little more time to open, but definitely coming.”
The feud had escalated earlier this year when Navara wrote an open letter in response to cheating insinuations and allegations from Kramnik, where the Russian GM had accused Navara of cheating in chess. In that letter titled “Because we care“, Navara wrote how he lost sleep after reading the comments from Kramnik and went into depression and had to take professional help from a psychiatrist and a psychotherapist.
The feud between chess.com and Kramnik goes back a long way, where the Russian was banned from the platform after he repeatedly accused other players of cheating publicly, violating the platform’s terms of service.
These incidents even led to Armenian-American Grandmaster Levon Aronian penning a heartfelt letter to Kramnik, who he calls his “chess parent” urging Kramnik to seek a fresh start, calling for unity and a “proper, unbiased analysis.” He also brought up the infamous Toiletgate controversy from 2006.
It’s pretty ironical that Kramnik in recent years have levelled cheating allegations against various players in online chess when he himself was accused of cheating by Veselin Topalov and his team, who accused the Russian of being up to no good because he visited the toilet too many times during their World Championship battle in 2006.
With Kramnik taking a 3-1 lead, Topalov’s manager Silvio Danailov said on the rest day that the Russian frequented the bathroom too frequently, an area which was not under any surveillance, implying that Kramnik had taken the assistance of a chess engine. It resulted in the organizers mandating a common toilet for both players to which Kramnik, alleging an infringement of his rights. As the controversy escalated, the rules were changed to what they were before and Kramnik edged his opponent.
