Kramnik: “I never accused Daniel Naroditsky of cheating”

Former world chess champion Vladimir Kramnik has denied ever accusing the late American grandmaster Daniel Naroditsky of cheating, saying his remarks were distorted and taken out of context. In his most recent interview, Kramnik claimed he only urged authorities to check potential irregularities — not to condemn Naroditsky.

“I never accused Daniel Naroditsky of cheating,” Kramnik said. “I only called for an examination of the data. I was the only one who publicly asked that he receive help.”

According to Kramnik, his private and public messages to both FIDE and Chess.com — asking them to review Naroditsky’s games and ensure his well-being — went unanswered. He described himself as a “scapegoat” for a chess establishment unwilling to confront what he calls “a growing problem of computer-assisted play.”

Preparing lawsuits against FIDE and Chess.com

Kramnik said he plans to file multiple legal actions — including against Chess.com, FIDE, and GM Hikaru Nakamura — for what he describes as defamation and coordinated harassment. He confirmed that he has already opened a criminal complaint in Switzerland after receiving death threats directed at him and his family.

“I have no protection. FIDE has been silent while I’ve received thousands of threats,” Kramnik said. “But I’m not afraid for my life. I’m ready to defend the truth.”

He added that Chess.com “dominates the chess world through financial power and media control,” claiming it suppresses discussion about cheating detection methods. Kramnik said he has submitted complaints to the European Commission and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) alleging potential monopolistic behavior.

A grim connection to Naroditsky’s death

In one of the most striking parts of the interview, Kramnik said he was “the only one who publicly warned that Daniel was in serious danger.”
He recalled watching Naroditsky’s final stream, describing the 29-year-old grandmaster as “barely able to speak, drowsy, and visibly unwell.”

Kramnik suggested that some of Naroditsky’s Twitch videos were deleted shortly before his death — a claim he said he has reported to Charlotte police and the FBI. “Someone should have helped him,” he said. “But nobody did anything for nearly two days.”

Authorities are still investigating the cause of Naroditsky’s death, focusing on two possibilities: drug shock or suicide. His funeral was held on October 23 in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he had lived and worked with Ukrainian GM Oleksandr Bortnyk and Charlotte Chess Center founder Peter Giannatos.

Tensions with Carlsen and Nakamura

Kramnik also criticized Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura, accusing both of hypocrisy and public mockery.

“They don’t know half the truth,” he said. “Nakamura bullied me for months online. We will meet in court.”

Despite the controversies, Kramnik said his motivation was not revenge but justice. “The rabbit hole is very deep,” he concluded. “But the truth will come out.”

Full transcript

Mihal Pterast: Hello and welcome to Global News Today. I’m Mihal Pterast. Tonight, a deeply difficult conversation. Former world chess champion Vladimir Kramnik. He joins us to speak about the fallout and fury surrounding the tragic death of American Grandmaster Daniel Naroditsky. A story that’s dominated headlines and shaken the chess world to its core.

Mihal Pterast: Thanks so much for your time, Mr. Kramnik. I’d like to start off with FIDE. They referred your statements about GM Daniel Naroditsky to its ethics commission. How do you respond?

Vladimir Kramnik: I’ve published already my statement also about it and I just would like to tell that I always was ready to provide all argumentation documentation concerning my suspicions which I was from time to time raising on fair play of certain players including this particular case. And I actually send the request to chess.com because the events are happening on chess.com to examine my documentation which is huge. I mean I have a lot of video materials and a lot of other documents but I didn’t get any response. Same happened with FIDE because I also asked before the one year ago on the Olympiad which was happening in Budapest 2024. I asked in my letter to the president of FIDE that I can present to the delegates certain documentations, also the method which we me and that my team is developing the new new generation method of anti-cheing but also I didn’t get any response. So I can only state that I’m very glad, I’m absolutely not against this examination. I mean this test and I’m ready to provide all documentation. I just hope that it will be unbiased and definitely it it should have been done earlier and I tried but there was no interest from the from those two sides.

Mihal Pterast: FIDE have said that the debate it moved beyond acceptable limits harming people. How do you respond to being named by FIDE?

Vladimir Kramnik: Well to start with it happened very long time ago already and we know very famous case with Hans Niemann but also there were lot of cases specifically talking with Hikaru Nakamura even with Daniel Naroditsky. And not too many people know that Daniel Naroditsky he had published in 2021 I believe a long text which you can find on internet actually complaining well having complaining about the behavior towards him of let’s say Hikaru Nakamura which was well according to the text which was really undecent and nobody paid any attention to it. Unfortunately the atmosphere last years in the world of chess is becoming very toxic. But in any case concerning me, well I can tell that I can tell state very clearly that there are major f major falsification actually of my position which is happening. I never accused Daniel Naroditsky of cheating. What I did, I collected a very very serious material which clearly and I I will stand by it and I will prove it in any commission or whatever is needed that it definitely shows that it has to be examined. That’s all what I wanted.

I collected documents. There were many strange things happening and I just wanted it to be examined. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen. And instead of simply examining it and giving the opinion, I started from the very beginning to be accused of misconduct of accusations. But it’s not accusations sus suspicion based very based argumented suspicion and I can again guarantee you that there are a lot of evidence in this and other cases that it has to be considered. So, but it was not accusation. It was not baseless accusations as they pretend and that will be a subject of my legal case because I said many times publicly that it’s not accusation and I asked many times to consider it but it was not done and maybe this is one of the reasons why the strategy, very sad strategy occurred.

Because, I mean but In any case, I want to say that of course it’s completely tragic what happened and it’s shocking and it’s really heartbreaking for for me also because of the especially circumstances which probably we will touch later in this conversation but I have no guilt in it and this attempts very dirty very organized orchestrated PR campaign which is happening now against me is well will be a cause of many different cases criminal and and civil cases which we are now preparing with my legal team and so I can only say we will meet in court and I’m sure that the court will understand will see real facts not PR but real facts and I have a lot of documents facts. And and as you’re saying from this,

Mihal Pterast: you’ve claimed you have evidence of widespread cheating and say that FIDE and chess.com ignored it. Why were your concerns overlooked?

Vladimir Kramnik: Because unfortunately there is a situation in nowadays world of chess where everybody understands actually most of top players is expressing concerns, very serious concerns about cheating, also in money events but it it became very clear to me from some point on when I started to work on it and to make a professional work concerning anti-cheing and the certain statistics ical analysis with mathematicians and somehow instead of support I from the very beginning. I started to meet very very strong resistance. So it seems to me and I’m pretty sure about it even though it’s my opinion only that the forces which are now dominating in the world of chess I would say financial and so let’s say authorities are trying to do everything in its power to to cover this issue which is actually undermining I mean the integrity of of the game in general because I what is very important to understand for the public for the audience that the amount of money which is now in price in prices of the events is it’s millions of dollars. It’s a lot of money

There is very little control and the main difference also that it’s very easy to use. There are a lot of different programs. It’s a whole industry of creating specially cheating programs to be able to cheat in chess games and it’s very easy to implement it and the control is not enough definitely so and there is a lot of money at stake and considering this well I think that I started to raise this issue but very soon I understood that by I’m actually a subject of of this kind of PR attacks even though the latest one is the harshest one I ever experienced but I’m getting these attacks for last two years already.

Mihal Pterast: just so we’re clear do you feel that and this is quite a revelation that you feel because of trying to highlight the cheating in chess as you’re saying you feel you describe yourself now as a scapegoat for FIDE and chess.com. Is that your belief?

Vladimir Kramnik: I’m absolutely convinced about it and it’s not the first time which is happening now it’s the harshest because of the certain circumstances. I because I many people don’t know about it because actually chess.com for example is definitely the most influential force now in the world of chess by far and they are having affiliated contractual financial relations with the majority of chess media influencers and also with chess players. So basically there are very few people, prominent people in the world of chess who are not under the contract of chess.com and yeah so therefore I don’t have a chance to get my position across and by the way I would like to use this possibility to thank you for for inviting me because simply the the general audience only listens to one side of a story and this side of a story is and I would not be shy try to tell it very often is false and I can prove it I can prove it factually.

Mihal Pterast: you accuse GM Daniel Naroditsky of cheating but you didn’t file an official complaint through FIDE before going public. Why?

Vladimir Kramnik: I didn’t accuse as I already mentioned. Yeah, I didn’t accuse. and FIDE itself FIDE themselves they do not they always said that it’s it’s a chess.com business and they never touch this issue so it is so if you have a certain suspicions or certain requests you have to well write it to chess.com so that’s what I did but also of course I I also a year ago offered to FIDE as I mentioned. So chess.com didn’t react to it and instead instead of simply checking my data I mean not accusation it’s a it’s a very serious data and they didn’t do it well and what could I do what could I do because this is a very alarming for instance I want to tell you maybe this we will we will talk later when we come back to this tragic incident which happened to the tragic death of Daniel Naroditsky and I will explain you for instance one of the points of of my I would say I was wondering about which is very obvious to anyone. You don’t need to be a chess player for it. But again again and again and again nothing was done nothing not even a reaction and yeah so now very late because we lost a brilliant person you know very young player it’s a very late unfortunately but too late I would say but at least now we can do it maybe yeah but it was not my fault I was not hiding away I was always responsible for my words and I always can prove my words And that’s what I’m going to do now if required.

Mihal Pterast: Before his passing, Daniel Naroditsky said, “Ever since the Krammnik stuff, if I start doing well, people assume the worst.” Do you feel any moral responsibility for the pressure he endured?

Vladimir Kramnik: I mean, it’s a long story. Again, the point is that Daniel Naroditsky also said in the stream a lot of other things. a lot of other things. I mean again the major media, chess media especially, they’re trying to hide the fact that for example Daniel Naroditsky in his last year of life had many issues. He had many problems with chess.com. Chess.com fired him. I mean from the position of the main commentator of the channel. I don’t know why but it was according to his streams some of them of those I saw it was really very painful for him. Then in July this year just a couple of months ago he was disqualified from a tournament for according to chess.com fair play violation and also it was extremely painful for him because it’s all these materials are public. I’m not inventing anything but now and he had some other issues as far as I know.

So, and now so what they are trying to do all those sources they want to put blame on me on the story which happened a year ago and I think I didn’t even mention Daniel Naroditsky and I didn’t talk about him for months already. It’s very obvious that there were many many other alarming things happening since then and so and they are so alarming coming let’s say I would like to talk a little bit about the the whole episode of the strategy and they’re so alarming that I guess there is an attempt to hide it and to put immediately very quickly this very harsh attack on me just to put all the blame on me but this is first of all I want to state very clearly this is totally unjustified and it will have legal consequences. Very clear. I promise it will have legal consequences for anyone any public figure who will try to defame me to slander and there is a lot of slander now and it’s based on simply not based on the truth.

Mihal Pterast: And speaking of that slander obviously some of your peers former world champions like Magnus Carlsen he called your treatment of Naroditsky quote horrible and he said you crossed the line. How do you respond to Magnus Carlsen?

Vladimir Kramnik: I don’t know what about the treatment of Magnus Carlsen to of Hans Niemann for example or or let’s say Hikaru Nakamura who actually said that I’m sort of responsible for the for the strategy. Yeah. What happened well I would like to remind him many other things how he was insulting a lot of times various chess players including me. He was bullying me for months for months and it’s all public. All this is public and also he was behaving with Daniel Naroditsky himself. You can read this document. I published it on my Twitter. You will see it court of Daniel and his what he’s writing is really alarming.

So maybe I would rather say that first of all they don’t know even half of of what I know and secondly maybe let’s everyone more let’s say take care of themsel behavior but I’m I mean if there are any examinations, any investigation I’m always ready to stand by my words I will present a lot of documentation and then It’s up to everyone to judge. But before before giving me a chance and this is maybe my first chance to present the truth the truth simply the truth to start shaming and blaming especially considering what happened during last two days of life of Daniel Naroditsky. This is really I believe immoral and very possibly illegal. my lawyers have

Mihal Pterast: and as you mentioned Hikaru Nakamura he has responded he says your behavior was cyber bullying and he called you a disgrace to chess. How do you respond to Hikaru Nakamura?

Vladimir Kramnik: He was bullying me for for months, two years ago he was I mean calling me all kind of names that I don’t want even to repeat in public for for months and my response to all what he was doing and now doing will be in the court because everything everything what you know all what I’m telling It’s all documented, all public. It’s just that of course quite a number of things were erased from internet since then. But there is enough first of all I was recording it on my own and there is enough of evidence for me to to be confident about the court case which we are going to have with Hikaru Nakamura and possibly with some other people and or structures.

Mihal Pterast: So, you’re suing Hikaru Nakamura. Is that correct?

Vladimir Kramnik: I mean, for the moment, for the moment we opened with my legal team yesterday, we opened a criminal case in Switzerland where I’m based for many years already. We opened a criminal case on the huge amount of threats which I was receiving, death threats, very ugly, very direct to me and to my family. So I have to I we asked with my lawyer we asked protection federal protection from Switzerland and this case is going to be open. Police is informed and searching for the criminals who are sending this, you know, and there were many who are sending this death threats to me and my family. That is the first one. The second one is going to be open. I I believe we need some time to gather the material and probably there will be the third one as well

I have no other choice now than to go legal and I’m totally confident I have all documentation I was not lying and what I tell I can prove it with documents and well so no choice if if the world of chess in this situation when everybody is afraid to speak out about things which they happily many prominent chess people happily talking about it in private but in public they are quite often telling different things I don’t want to re to release details of my private communication with many other players or journalists so well but I’m not I’m not going to play to obey to this rules of the modern chess world and to cover everything especially when it gets to well to misconducts which can be legal also.

So that is the reason that is the reason why I feel filed this complaint to the European union commission about well to check chess.com for example I mean it was about chess.com to check for the compliance with major laws of European Union and also with SEC American entity of the same kind well and yes Well, I I’m not ready and that’s I’m not ready to to play this rules with these rules. I mean, which I find sick. I’m sorry. And yeah, I know that it’s very dangerous what I’m doing. I know it very I knew it. I was receiving a number of quite a number of threats already before this story. But I just cannot stand it. I I think the world of chess should be fair and transparent and it’s not now. It’s very far from it. We have a world of chess nowadays where one force is dominating the world of chess financially influ by influence and basically everybody is playing according to the rules of of this entity and I believe it’s totally wrong and yeah I’m going to fight against it I know that the force the force behind is extremely powerful billions millions of dollars of let’s say forces multi-billion forces which are behind which do not want to reveal the public knows what about certain facts which…

Mihal Pterast: I’m sorry to interrupt but just as you’re going to fight what outcome are you looking for?

Vladimir Kramnik: Outcome, well just my outcome is that the world of chess becomes a better place, becomes less toxic, becomes fair and transparent and probably cheating finally will be will be you know punished and which is very often not happening nowadays. So that is that is my outcome my for the integrity of the game for the integrity of the world of chess and I’m ready to I mean I’m going to fight for it because it’s too bad I mean I’m sorry it’s just too bad and when I see even now when when I have a number of players who contact me directly privately and actually express speak with me very kindly and express support but there simply a threat a threat to tell it publicly. And this is this is not the world of chess I I used to know. And this is not the world of chess that I I’m ready to accept. Whatever price I’m going to pay and the price can be very very high as we as we see by the recent developments.

Mihal Pterast: FIDE said great achievements confer a responsibility to uphold fairness and respect. Yourself as a former world chess champion. Do you believe or do you believe that you have met the standard here?

Vladimir Kramnik: Well this standard again it’s not up to me to judge. I believe I was fair. I was again I was never insulting, I was never insulted Daniel Naroditsky. I I never told that he accused him that he is cheating. No it’s not true. Even though there was one episode when he admitted himself. It happened once long ago. Whatever. I mean this is documented but I never told that he was cheating any other at least time when and okay well the rest will be judged by somebody else but I want to tell that this standard exist only on paper already because in in reality it’s becoming very toxic the world of chess and I’m by far not not the one not the one who is not doing the harshest things and for instance now I’m actually quite shocked and yeah I’m unpleasantly surprised that when for the last few days I I get a lot of hate messages and direct threats simply direct physical threats towards me and the family whatever people think about me but maybe I would expect feed if there are so much caring about the integrity and you know of chess and and of chess players maybe they they could have at least made one statement to tell that it’s not correct. I’m a chess player. I’m a former world champion. And when I’m receiving multiple threats, I mean, I’m publishing it and there is a silence from FIDE. I don’t think whatever they think about me, I don’t think it’s a it’s a appropriate behavior for for the International Federation for

Mihal Pterast: Are you afraid for your life?

Vladimir Kramnik: I’m not afraid for my life, but I know that there is a Yeah, it’s an option. I believe it’s an option because it can happen because I was working on certain things for for more than a year already and you know I opened a certain Pandora box and so many things started to get out of it that I I have a lot of information a lot of very very important information that I’m ready to share with any major media channel with police with FBI I mean it’s I’m I’m serious. It’s not like you know it is serious information. Also, I mentioned that I I have something to add if of course if the police of Charlotte because as far as I know the death of Daniel Naroditsky is now investigated by the police and I would like to help with a certain non public information that I have. So yeah I’m ready but nobody wants everybody is afraid to to listen to my documents. It’s not my ideas. There are a lot of documentation. You know my complaint with European Commission and with SEC is 63 pages of documentation. Well let’s so it’s very based what I’m telling and that’s why knowing it I knowing who is behind some structures in chess I understand that there is a risk yeah of course it is but you know if I wouldn’t take risks maybe I wouldn’t have become world champion I wouldn’t have beaten legendary Gary Kasparov in the world championship match I’m ready to take risk but mostly I’m well worried about my family about the psychological shape, physical shape. Yeah. But yeah, but it it is true. It is true. Is a the rabbit hole is very deep there. I can assure you.

Mihal Pterast: If the FIDE Ethics Commission finds you have breached its code, will you accept the decision publicly? And how will you change your conduct? And also is this a wider conversation for change in the whole of the chess world?

Vladimir Kramnik: To start with, I haven’t been contacted yet by by FIDE. So I guess they cannot really do this this examination without asking finally finally asking for my materials and I believe that when I will provide all all the documentation I have the well probably the verdict will be different but if if they will decide that I was wrong and I wouldn’t agree with it let’s say let’s just take it as an example of course I would go to court if If you don’t mind, I wanted to speak a bit about the what happened recently with Daniel Naroditsky and the the situation which led there and because this is extremely shocking and especially now when everybody is trying to put the blame on me but very few maybe people or I mean people who are following this story who is not in the world of chess they they know that I was the only one who after watching his stream a a few days ago before two days before his death. It was so bad. It was so heartbreaking. It was so obvious that Daniel Naroditsky is in real real trouble, physical trouble. I mean, he couldn’t barely speak. He was falling asleep. He was behaving in a very strange way. There was obviously a big problem.

And so when after watching some episodes of it I I immediately I published on on my ex said well please help him it’s very clear there is something wrong I mean it’s it’s just obvious and then instead what was happening that people I don’t know around him or people who are working with him they were I mean a lot of people started to blame me to convince that no you are just attacking him everything is okay even though it was very obvious And at the end of the day finally what was happening that that somebody started to erase a lot of videos finally which I really don’t like and seems to me that it should be a matter of the investigation of the police but of course it’s the job anyway that all his streams from his Twitch channel were erased one day before his death and is including this this last stream. And this is so basically what everyone I mean I of course I’m exaggerating but in general what people cared about is that this very strange very worrying alarming stream of Daniel Naroditsky the last one unfortunately that happened to be the last one that actually it escapes public attention and when I started to tell okay I don’t mind that you erase but help him it’s very obvious something is wrong you need to help him but what happened that actually for more than one day or almost two days. Nobody came to him. Nobody you know did anything and finally he died.

The and well the circumstances the official you know verdict will be probably published soon why it happened but nobody did anything. So only thing what people were doing is blaming me for attracting attention and I was really doing it and for and trying to erase the evidence of of his let’s say strange behavior and this is I mean this I was so angry when I heard the news you know it hit me like a hammer because the same day two hours before I heard the news I was talking to a friend of mine and I I remember I was telling him a chess player he can confirm it. I told him it’s very dangerous. They have to do something. Nobody did anything and after we got this tragic news immediately like orchestrated I started to receive insults, attacks and I was I mean maybe my first tweet after that was yeah maybe I should have first do it about Daniel Naroditsky but I did later but it was I was just it was a rage. It was a desperation and rage because it was obvious that it can happen and and then to blame me after the only person who was raising you know who was alarming who was telling do something and nobody did anything.

I mean, I was frantically enraged and maybe that ended in this tweet. Even though of course it was nothing against Naroditsky, but I was saying, well, guys, what what did you do? Guys who were around, why why did you nobody help him when he needed it? And okay, now I am a villain because of this tweet and and just because I am who I am of my face, my name, whatever. But I can assure you that well, it’s a very sad story. It’s a tragic story and only what I want to express of course a deep condolences to the family that yeah of course we lost very important figure in the world of chess but I hope that the world of chess will become different after this case and that such awful stories will not happen again. I really hope so.

Mihal Pterast: And in regard to this obviously extremely tragic case everyone in the chess world is heartbroken over this. What about Levy Rozman also known as Gotham Chess who is one of the largest channels in the world. He praised Daniel Naroditsky. He’s urged for a more respectful discussion about cheating. How do you respond?

Vladimir Kramnik: Probably yes but it’s very difficult when the entities which should check and should give the verdict they active they’re ignoring it. And also if Levy Rozman or somebody else is urgent for more respectful discussion maybe they well they should also it should be related to everyone not not just to me even though again I I I was always I I never made any personal attack or insult towards Daniel Naroditsky and anyone else. I really I really never do it. It should never get personal and for me it was never personal and but unfortunately it is it is extremely toxic. There are a lot of videos first of all let’s say directly accusing of cheating during games. So many times a lot of videos of let’s say Nakamura even Daniel Naroditsky himself or doing it on camera.

This is documented. So maybe we should have a equal I would say equal responsibilities and we if I agree it should be much more respectful and and yeah I was one of the major targets of disrespectful and mocking and bullying for last two years and I’m not inventing it. It’s it’s provable. It’s all it’s all online. You can find it but I fully agree with it. But then probably we should all do it and you should not find scapegoats and especially in this case which is dramatic and to use it for for shame and blame for somebody whom you whom you want to I I’m sorry to to shut up. Yeah. I mean not to talk not to reveal some things. This is unacceptable and but in general obviously obviously yeah I would really like the world of chess would be as respectful as it was when I was playing professionally chess and it’s not it’s very far from it now.

Mihal Pterast: We’re just out of time. Vladimir Kramnik, thanks for your time.

Vladimir Kramnik: Thank you.