Daniel Naroditsky

Daniel Naroditsky (born November 9, 1995) often referred to as Danya, is an American chess grandmaster, author, and commentator.

Chess career
Born in San Mateo, California, Naroditsky learned chess at age six from his father, Vladimir. He was soon taking serious chess lessons. Naroditsky won the 2007 Northern California K–12 Chess Championship, the youngest player ever to do so.

In 2007, Naroditsky won the Under 12 division of the World Youth Chess Championship with 9½/11, tying with Illya Nyzhnyk but winning the gold medal on tiebreaks.

At the 2010 U.S. Open Chess Championship, Naroditsky scored 7½/9 to share second place with Alexander Shabalov, Varuzhan Akobian, and Julio Sadorra, but behind Alejandro Ramírez. This qualified him for the 2011 U.S. Championship.

Naroditsky competed in the 2011, 2012, and 2013 U.S. Junior Championships, winning clear first place in 2013 with 6.5/9, ahead of Samuel Sevian and Luke Harmon-Vellotti. This victory qualified him for the 2014 U.S. Championship.

Naroditsky earned his first grandmaster norm at the Benasque Open in July 2011. He earned his second grandmaster norm at the 2013 Philadelphia Open by tying for first place with Fidel Corrales Jimenez. He earned his final grandmaster norm at the 2013 Benasque Open. Naroditsky was officially awarded the grandmaster title at the end of 2013 at age 18.

In 2014, Naroditsky was awarded the Samford Chess Fellowship. Later that year, he tied for fifth place in the Millionaire Chess Open in Las Vegas.

In 2015, Naroditsky represented the United States at the World Team Chess Championship, where he scored 4.0/7, defeating Dmitry Jakovenko and Evgeny Postny, but losing to Hrant Melkumyan, earning a performance rating of 2701.

Naroditsky played in the 2011, 2014, 2015, 2017, and 2021 U.S. Chess Championships. In the 2021 U.S. Championship, he defeated Fabiano Caruana who was rated 2800 FIDE and ranked #2 in the World.

He plays on Chess.com under the handle DanielNaroditsky, and on Lichess.org under the handle RebeccaHarris. He frequently ranks at the top of both websites' global leaderboards in Blitz and Bullet time controls. His peak bullet rating on Chess.com is 3553, and peak bullet rating on lichess is 3326.

By FIDE ratings, Naroditsky is consistently ranked in the top 150 in the World, top 20 in the U.S., and top 75 in Blitz and Rapid.

Writing and other activities
Naroditsky published the books Mastering Positional Chess in 2010, and Mastering Complex Endgames in 2012.

He wrote The Practical Endgame, a column in Chess Life, from 2014 to 2020.

From June to September 2022, Naroditsky wrote a series of 19 columns featuring chess puzzles based on historical games for The New York Times.

Since 2020, he has been the grandmaster-in-residence of the Charlotte Chess Center (CCC), where he trains the area's top junior players and is the 2023 CCC Club Champion.

He is active on YouTube and Twitch, where he has over 400,000 subscribers and 310,000 followers, respectively.

Personal life
Naroditsky's parents are Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union. His father Vladimir immigrated from Ukraine, while his mother Lena came from Azerbaijan. Naroditsky attended high school at Crystal Springs Uplands School in Hillsborough, California. He graduated from Stanford University in 2019 with a degree in history.

He currently resides in Charlotte, North Carolina.