Chess pros are calling for Vladimir Kramnik to be banned from competing and for the International Chess Federation (FIDE) CEO Emil Sutovsky to resign after their responses to Daniel Naroditsky’s death.
On October 20, chess grandmaster and streamer Daniel Naroditsky died at 29 years old, and tributes from fans and fellow players soon poured in.
Naroditsky, who became a grandmaster at 18 and went on to build a flourishing career as an influencer, had been one of many players accused of cheating by former world champion Vladimir Kramnik.
During Naroditsky’s last stream, he expressed concern with the allegations, commenting on how if he started playing well or ended a broadcast, people would “assume the worst of intentions.”
The chess GM later fell asleep during the broadcast, causing Kramnik to respond, “Typical nowadays [in the] world of chess, the only thing everyone cares about is ‘looking great’ and pretending there are no issues. Even if it’s about long-term major problems. Stop this double-faced hypocrisy for once and try to help solve them. Image isn’t everything.”
The next day, following Naroditsky’s death, Kramnik remarked, “Too high price paid, but if I was the only person shouting about obvious long term problems of Danya becoming alarming, requiring urgent measures from people, while ‘friends’ only cared about hiding it and erase evidence, it’s rotten to the core.”
Now, players are demanding that Kramnik be banned from competitions, and they’re calling out FIDE CEO Emil Sutovsky in the process.
Players call for Kramnik’s ban
In a series of posts on X, chess stars Nemo Zhou and GothamChess demanded that action be taken.
“It’s time to stop worrying about the backlash. I am calling on the FIDE EDC to remove Vladimir Kramnik from the FIDE record books, revoke his title, and disqualify his world championship,” Nemo urged. “What Kramnik has done to David Navara, Hikaru, and Danya, and others can not be tolerated.”
“FIDE and its EDC must establish clear policies moving forward around the safety of it’s players both in person and digitally. The events leading up to this tragedy happened in broad daylight over the last 18 months.”
GM Hikaru Nakamura echoed those sentiments, thanking Nemo for her “clear” comments.
GothamChess shared a similar point of view, suggesting that if the top 100 players sign a petition or boycott events until something is done about Kramnik, whether it’s banning him or revoking his world title.
FIDE CEO accuses players of “virtue signalling” following Daniel Naroditsky’s death
Meanwhile, FIDE CEO Emil Sutovsky faced backlash for his take on the situation, commenting, “It is too simple to focus on Kramnik and forget everything else… Virtue signaling and like-grabbing is the worst way to pay respect to Danya.”
This sparked major controversy, with popular YouTuber GothamChess calling Emil’s statement “heinous.”
“He wrote five times as much, pointing the finger at the people who could have helped the man and try to talk him through it.”
Nemo was even harsher in her criticism, demanding that the CEO step down from his position.
“You had days to prepare a statement and your first comments were to accuse his friends for his death, take 0 responsibility for protecting your players or enforcing your own bylaws, and claim we are all virtue signaling for caring? You are disgusting. Resign. Immediately,” she blasted.
Sutovsky did, however, admit that his previous statement was poorly worded and FIDE needs to do better to protect players.
“It was obviously not aimed at Danya’s close friends or God forbid family. I was referring to people who now refer to themselves as friends, but did very little to help… I acknowledge that FIDE also could and should have done better,” he followed up.
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