benmmurphy
1d ago
I'm not sure what should happen to Kramnik. The FIDE handbook has a section on false accusations:
https://handbook.fide.com/files/handbook/ACCRegulations.pdf
Reckless or manifestly unfounded accusation of chess cheating is a serious violation of the requirement of fair play. False accusation in chess is an abuse of freedom of expression that is prohibited by the FIDE Ethics and Disciplinary Code.
FIDE did investigate Magnus Carlsen over a similar complaint in relation to his activity with Hans Nieman. But found him not guilty except for a charge relating to his withdrawal from a tournament which I believe is not allowed without good reason. I think Magnus was able to avoid sanction because it didn't make a direct accusation but I suspect Kramnik has walked closer to this line even though he will claim that he is just asking questions or looking at statistics if he is ever challenged.
The other problem I see is this starting to normalize suicidal threats. David Navara made a blog post that can be uncharitably summarized as 'do something about Kramnik or I'll kill myself'. However, I do urge you to read the whole blog because I think the situation is much complicated than that and I think its very difficult for someone in his situation to express how he feels without it coming across as a suicidal threat or emotional manipulation (https://lichess.org/@/RealDavidNavara/blog/because-we-care/fauAwr9r). He even has this to say:
I want to stress that I firmly believe that a suicide is a wrong decision in a vast majority of situations, including mine one. I do not write this to criticize people who were desperate and saw no other solution, I just stress this to discourage depressed people from damaging themselves in an irrevocable way. The human life has a great value. It is a gift and gifts should not be given back.
benmmurphy
1d ago
i'm actually wondering whether if a lot of these drama events are actually real or if they have are wholly faked or pre-planned to generate content. one hot tub streamer Amouranth appears to have generated a fake abuse story with the co-operation of her husband.
Grandmaster Daniel Naroditsky died at the age of 29 after an apparently weird stream (https://youtube.com/watch?v=mzo3JHvg-iw). There has even been a Tyler Cowen 'Straussian post' that may been in reference to his passing where Tyler references negative social contagion (https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2025/10/why-live-how-suicide-becomes-an-epidemic.html). This follows an ongoing controversy where former world champion Vladimir Kramnik has either inferred or accused Naroditsky of cheating in online chess. There is no doubt that Naroditsky is a very strong chess player. He has strong over the board results where it would be difficult to cheat and also recently beat Anna Cramling blindfolded in a bullet match where he gave her time odds. (https://youtube.com/watch?v=rmLDo3SKUo8). Anna Cramling is not a top player but she is still very strong and I think this is vivid proof for non-chess people that Daniel is a strong chess player.
Kramnik has been inferring or accusing people of cheating based on their online performances in chess.com titled Tuesday events where there are cash prizes or their other games on chess.com where they have made large win streaks. In chess there is a big problem with online cheating because for strong players access to a computer evaluation of the position after their opponent had made a move would be a large advantage according to Magnus Carlson (https://youtube.com/watch?v=VcbHmHHwlUQ&t=345) and it would be very difficult for an anti-cheat system to detect this. Maybe it would be possible to correlate move time with change in evaluation to try and detect such a cheat but I suspect it would be a very noisy signal. But strong players have chosen more greedy approaches to cheating where they will play moves supplied directly from a computer engine and chess.com have some statistical methods where they are able to detect this cheating and have banned FIDE titled players for this.
There has been an outpouring of support for Daniel because he is well liked in the chess community because of the education content he puts out on youtube and his wholesome persona. Also, people feel that Kramnik's allegations against him and other people in chess have been unfounded. This includes allegations against GM David Navara (https://lichess.org/@/RealDavidNavara/blog/because-we-care/fauAwr9r) who claimed in a blog post he had suicidal thoughts due to Kramniks attacks.
Kramnik's allegations against Naroditsky also included a 'speed run' match where Naroditsky played weaker opponents on chess.com to produce educational content. In this episode Naroditsky opened a computer engine to start evaluating the game before it had ended while his opponent was stalling (https://youtube.com/watch?v=mzo3JHvg-iw). Daniel left this comment in the video explaining the situation:
Hey folks,
I'd like to address several comments that pointed out my use of the engine to analyze the opening from the second game while it was still ongoing, around the 25:00 mark.
First, and most importantly, having an engine running during a game is against the rules, end of story. It was wrong and I unreservedly apologize to my opponent and to any viewers who felt uncomfortable during that segment. After capturing my opponent's queen, I fully expected resignation any moment and got impatient. It goes without saying that one's status or title should never put them above justified criticism. I am sorry and it will not happen again.
However, I'd like to strongly request that you take the context into account and treat it charitably. The speedrun series is educational in nature, and as such, my priority at every moment is to maximize the instructive value of each second. I was up a full queen and minor piece, and was looking at the opening (i.e. the unrelated position after a few moves) in the hopes of shortening the post-game analysis. In the moment, I thought it obvious that in the context of the series it would not be interpreted by anyone as deliberate cheating. I think that anyone with a modicum of discernment can see that I had zero intention of "normalizing cheating" by suggesting that using an engine during a competitive game is in any way acceptable. It is not. And anyone who has watched even a tiny percent of my YT or stream content can agree, I hope, that I have consistently advocated for fair play in chess, and have tried to foster a community that prizes honesty and integrity as we all strive to become better at chess.
My priority is, and always will remain, to put out educational content that helps people improve at chess. I try to lead by example, but I am not perfect. Thank you for taking this into consideration, and my deepest gratitude to y'all for your support, kind words, and stories of success. I am honored and grateful to play a part in your chess journey.
Chess.com where these games were played has made some effort to legitimise speedrun accounts. Normally, such a thing would be considered a fair play violation due to smurfing but chess.com has an official way to register a speedrun account and anyone who is queued against a speedrun account would have their rating points refunded. Potentially, chess.com could have gone further and made queuing into speedrun accounts an opt-out preference and made it clearer what fairplay rules speedrun accounts could violate. For example, I'm currently enjoying a series on the sicilian dragon from a GM but when the opponent makes a mistake the GM will ask the live stream audience what is the move to take advantage of the mistake. This makes a lot of sense from a teaching point of view but is a technical violation of the chess.com fairplay rules that bars outside assistance.
Kramnik is now claiming he has contacted the Charlotte police department with new information about Daniels death (https://x.com/VBkramnik/status/1981257207917187291)
I have contacted the Charlotte police Department and asked them to investigate the death of Daniel, providing them some additional info . Hope will be done, and real truth about the curcumstances and cause of this tradegy will be revealed, despite all attempts to hide it
I'm not sure what information Kramnik has shared but there seems to be a conspiracy pushed by Kramnik aligned people that there is some kind of 'chess mafia'. I assume this is based around chess.com, the Charolette chess center and a bunch of popular streamers that work with chess.com. Previously, there was a character called 'ChessBae' that was able to use money and chess.com connections in order to exert influence on chess streamers (https://old.reddit.com/r/HobbyDrama/comments/oios3j/chess_the_rise_and_fall_of_chessbae_the/) so it is not completely far fetched. However, Kramnik has a history of coming up short when it comes to his accusations so based on past performance Naroditsky death will probably turn out to be unsuspicious.
benmmurphy
5d ago
AIPAC's success could also just be a relic of the cold war. it looks to me like the west backed Israel and the Soviets backed a bunch of other states/organizations in that region and this also why now we have a lot of support on the left for Palestine. Some of the Palestinian organizations were explicitly Marxist/Leninist and also hooked up with revolutionary Marxist organizations in Europe to commit operations. It seems like this was a big thing in the 60s/70s.
Both Israel and Palestine today receive a lot of support from the left for Palestine and the right / (institutional left) for Israel because of inertia. Probably a lot of people don't know really why are they giving support to Israel or Palestine because the inertia from the Cold War is so large. There would have been massive propaganda efforts by both the Soviets and the US mainstream to push their sides point of view and is likely still having a large effect today.
I guess if FIDE has provision for doing something like that, then that a risk a player undertakes when they violate the rules. But I do agree that it is a bit weird to strip people of results like World Champion that have legitimately earned for unrelated unsportsmanlike conduct that occurred at a different time. Stripping people of titles like Grandmaster seems more reasonable because it sounds more like an honorific even though it is purely based on an objective criteria. It does actually look like a strict reading of the code would allow FIDE to strip Kramnik of his World Championship result (https://handbook.fide.com/files/handbook/EthicsAndDisciplinaryCode2022.pdf). They basically have a bunch of sanctions, and a bunch of offences and there doesn't seem to be any guidance from the FIDE code on which sanctions are appropriate for which offences.
FIDE even has the damnatio memoriae option:
More options
Context Copy link