Justice for Daniel Naroditsky

Hi folks.

I didn't want to make a video about this

for a little while.

And just like the last video on the

subject, nothing in this video is

monetized.

It's just me trying to send a message to

all of you on the biggest platform, the

biggest microphone that I have.

It's currently 9 in the morning where I

am

and soon I will be flying to the funeral

of a friend of a pillar of the chess

community

of a brilliant man, Daniel Nerdski.

It still doesn't feel real. It's like a

bad dream that you you just want to wake

up from.

And I wanted to wait a little while,

maybe talk to the family,

see what was the best way to unite the

chess community moving forward.

Not just in an attempt to honor DA,

but frankly in an attempt to bring him

and his family

any sort of justice

for what DA went through for the past

year, year and a half.

And of course I am talking about

rampant attacks

effectively

accusations of foul play in chess

from a former world champion

in Vladimir Kramnik who we're going to

talk about all that. I thought there

would be a time and a place.

It's very difficult to separate

the horrible news of DA's passing with

the treatment he received from the

former world champion, an idol of his.

There's a photo on the internet of DA as

a child standing next to Kramnik. And I

it's for me it was a conversation that

can happen after a grieving period. But

after what I saw this morning, I woke up

and I I am sick to my stomach and I want

to record this before I go to the

airport because

this has to this has to stop. I I don't

know what to do. I I will try to play

some sort of role in it, a key role,

but what I saw this morning

is making me sick to my stomach and I I

need to get it off my chest. Okay, so

very quick context. Um, for the better

part of let's say two years, Vladimir

Kramnik took it upon himself to become

the person that is going to

solve fair play. to say things about

cheating in chess that nobody's willing

to say because as in his own words

censorship,

you know, chess.com censoring the

content creators or the grand masters or

whatever it is. You you know it. I mean,

he's accused Hikaro Nakamura directly

for two years at this point. Hikaro has

sort of gotten over it um in, you know,

to the best of his ability. I woke up

this morning to the following. Okay? And

I'm I'm sorry I'm rambling a little bit.

Please bear with me.

I woke up to this post. Um this is a

post from Emil Satovski.

Um

the frequent person on this channel, um

CEO of Feday.

Amount of love given to DA postmortem is

unprecedented. I can't recall anything

of the kind. But here is the problem.

Where are all of you when DA was alive

and unwell? I'm not talking about

stepping in when he was accused,

although it's a separate important

matter. I know many people find it hard

to express her opinion as the problem is

huge and striking a balance is

impossible. One thing is clear, the way

Kremnik approaches it simply can't be

accepted and his reaction on Daniel's

passing is appalling and outright

shameful. Feday is not a court of

justice, but we will act within our

jurisdiction. However, let's not

oversimplify it. It is too simple to

focus on Kramnik. DA was clearly not at

his best in recent months. He stopped

appearing as a commentator for one

reason or another. He was not his usual

self. Now all those who claimed dear da

was to their heart how good a friend

they were. Where have you been? What did

you do? All those crimenic attacks on da

happened not this week or month. It was

not a shocking accusation that killed da

overnight. Um it kept haunting him for

more than a year even if there was not

much more pimics of recent. So I ask you

alleged da's friends. What did you do to

help him for half a year? Did many of

you write to him and ask whether he is

okay? Why he arguably the best

commentator online disappear from the

screen? Did you text him to ask him why

he stopped streaming? Then he talks

about his own experiences with da

um and then he said you know

um

he might be surprised to read about this

or that person allegedly being a his

friend. Da was kind to many but he feels

like most of the time he was lonely.

Virtue signaling like grabbing is the

worst way to pay respect to DA. I'm

sorry. I I am irate. I can't I can't

even like fully read this tweet because

while he wrote two sentences about

Kramnik and whatever Feday is going to

[ __ ] do because I don't think

anything is going to happen. I really I

don't curse in my videos but

I can't even look. We don't we don't

know. I was a friend of Daniel and I

don't know what happened. Okay.

I don't know what happened.

He had so many people in his life

talking with him. The close group he had

in Charlotte, North Carolina, wrote a

beautiful, beautiful post about him. I I

I I I should pull it up. It's from Grant

Oen.

Please find it on Twitter. It's

I mean, I spoke to so many people who

have spoken to him just in the last

week. This is such a heinous thing to

say. He wrote five times as much,

pointing the finger

at the people who could have helped the

man, try to talk him through it. Now,

I'm just going to I'm just going to keep

showing you things here because I'm

going to lose my mind. I'm sorry. I'm

I'm I really am I'm not in good shape

and I don't want to keep this inside. I

just don't I mean, this is like a

borderline therapy session for me. Um,

sorry. This is I clicked on the wrong

thing. We're going to go back here for a

second. Um, Nemo

um wrote something a couple of days ago.

She she said in watching the clip below

of his last stream, hearing the pain in

his voice, how deeply the baseless

accusations affected him. It's time to

stop worrying about the backlash. I'm

calling on Feday to remove Kramnik from

the record books, revoke his title,

disqualify his world championship. Chess

is one of the most beloved games in the

world and should be a place for kindness

and inclusion. It should be unilaterally

unacceptable to use a platform that

chess has given you to bully, harass,

and slander a colleague. What Kramnik

has done to Navar, Hikaru, Dany, and

others cannot be tolerated. It is up to

our community and the governing body to

set an example. Um, and they should and

and there are more. I mean, Nihal

Saurin, one of the very first people and

God bless his soul, the last person to

have played Daniel Neridski in some

chess,

um,

told the Indian Express that, you know,

the relentless basis accusations, public

interrogations he faced in recent months

caused him immense pressure and pain.

Um, Nemo was co-signed by Hikaru. It

says, "Thank you for making the

statement so clearly." Um, there is a

video, there is a clip of Daniel just a

few days before his passing where he is

obviously unwell uh while live

streaming. If you haven't seen it, I

mean, people have uploaded it. I I I

can't even stomach watching stuff like

that. But one of the things he says

towards the end of the of of of this

stream is he literally says, "I can't

end the stream after I start playing

well. I can't play well off stream ever

since the Kramnik stuff. People start

accusing me." Those were literally

some of the last sentences that he

uttered after friends local in Charlotte

came to get him at 2 in the morning

seeing that he was struggling on a live

stream.

So I am sorry but it is impossible to

disconnect the two. You can sit there.

Sun just went down. I'm sorry. You can

sit there and you can say whatever you

want and you know wishing

uh you know a lot of people are sending

you know death threats and the usual

internet behavior and you I do not

condone that. You should not do that.

But there needs to be a form of justice.

Magnus Carlson yesterday while live

streaming um titled Tuesday gave a

statement, a very poignant statement,

six minutes where he said that he if

anything he supported DA in private

um and he wishes maybe he he did it

publicly as well although he can

understand why

um you know he hopes people can

understand why he would be you know

obviously a bit careful.

given the entire you know Hans Neman

thing. Um and last but not least I'm

going to summarize all of this. You know

there was David Navara before there was

DA there there was David Navara Czech

Grandmaster probably along with DA one

of the most universally beloved people

in the chess world and he wrote a post

about how being mentioned in a a tweet

of Kramnik from as you can see May 2024

is how long this has been going on if

not more. how this tweet over time um

made him have suicidal thoughts and

and and he wrote a letter to, you know,

and and and he wasn't even he was he was

nowhere near as directly accused and

belligerently accused as Daniel Nerdski.

Nothing has happened. Nothing has

happened. Um,

so I'm making this video

to give my summary

of of Kremnik, of DA, of the current

situation. I made a few videos about

Vladimir Kramnik

when it first all started.

And I realized at a certain point, and

it was about Hikaru, it was about the

Hikaru streaks, how he can win a bunch

of games in a And I realized at a

certain point it was hopeless because

Kramnik was belligerent. Kramnik blocked

everybody on social media that didn't

agree with him. Kramnik only had his

version of statistics. He played a match

against Jose Martinez.

And you know there was still a way to to

to twist the whole thing uh into his

narrative. And I and I and I made a

decision. There is no point platforming

him anymore. If you go to his posts, he

has the same 50 Twitter accounts

responding. The same 50 to 100 people.

And I said, I will let him scream into

his little void to little people who

don't matter because as Magnus said in

his statement and as many people said,

they they think he they they they think

he's crazy. Like they they don't support

a lot of this stuff. Even if there were

the the moments where he was correct,

you know, because he he wants to attack

10 people and maybe one or two will be

will be guilty. And at a certain point,

everybody stopped talking about it

publicly because there was no point. I

mean, he would just use whatever you

said against him and try to add you to a

def defamation lawsuit that he that he

claimed that he was working on. He would

like this. There is there is no winning.

I mean, he is just a complete serial

manipulator and abuser. Like, whatever

he whatever he strives for that he

thinks is the reality, no matter what,

you lose. If you say something, he he

immediately attacks you and says you're

a you're part of the mafia or whatever.

If you don't say anything, it's because

you're getting censored. So for a period

of time,

people privately like you saw Magnus say

and Hikaru did it both private and

public because he was also getting

attacked. They

they you know they talked privately and

were like listen man like it's nuts.

He's never going to stop. How do you

make the guy stop? Right? I mean he has

a social media. How how do you make it

stop? Um,

and maybe I mean it's not even clear if

saying anything publicly would have

would would have changed anything

because Daniel performed at the World

Blitz Championship at an elite level.

Daniel went on a Russian podcast on

Levidov, debated with Kramnik for an

hour. It looked like everything had been

put to rest and KN came back three, four

times harder. Like

there was no winning and there was no

winning with this like dark spirit.

There is just there is nothing there.

And for me to wake up this morning and

to see this statement from Satovski

pointing the blame at the friends the

alleged friends.

I don't know. I don't know if I've said

anything coherent. I said at the

beginning of the video I wanted to wait.

I wanted to speak to the family to see

if there was a way to unite moving

forward.

I don't I don't know how you can't

revoke

I I I don't know. I'm at a loss. And

what I woke up today to

um with

Kramnik already saying things like the

chess mafia is dangerous

and it it just it all feels

so hopeless like I that for something to

happen

maybe the top 100 players in the world

can sign a petition saying they're not

going to play in any more events until

something is done. what that something

is. I don't know. I I don't know. I

don't know what you do in in in chess.

Do you um suspend from events? Do you I

mean there's all this you can revoke the

title. You you can condemn. But what do

you do? You know, I don't have anything

tangible. I have been sitting thinking

about this for 48 hours mixed with

is there something I could have done?

You know, um I have never lost a friend.

I I mean I I I went to the funeral of my

grandfather who was you know 95. I don't

know. I'm getting through this just like

many of you um for whom DA played some

role in your life. You know many people

got into chess and in their darkest

times during the pandemic or or whenever

you know like studying for med school or

or working your way up the elo ladder or

connecting with friends and relatives

over chess.

I I can't believe this is real and I I

can't believe that that this is the

immediate response from from the only

people maybe in the chess world who can

do anything about it. So please maybe we

need a petition.

I imagine I will be seeing some of the

best players in the world like Hikaro

and Fabiano maybe. I I don't know

because I think he's in the US

championship right at at at his funeral.

Please, we can't we can't let this go in

vain.

And while I wanted to wait a little

while before opening the Pandora's box

of this conversation,

the point is not to point

blame and start this and that, but there

needs

there needs to be justice. And I I don't

know.

I don't know how we're going to get

there with Feday. Like I I just don't

know. Um those are my thoughts. I have

to go to the airport.

Uh that's all I have for you today. I I

hope I've made myself clear. Um I'm

rambling a bit, but um

I I just can't believe I woke up to

these posts. I just I can't I can't

believe it. I can't believe that it's

already being twisted in such a way that

um

I mean tens if not hundreds of millions

of people around the world are honoring

Daniel. I mean it's been covered by

every single major news outlet that I

can find. It's been covered in China.

You know, I have relatives there. Um

I mean he was he was just beloved, you

know. I

I I just I can't believe this is this is

what's happening now. This is a my video

is a response

to these posts by these people

and I don't know what's coming next. So,

um I'm going to stop talking. I hope

this made sense. Please use the comment

section to vent and so on. And

I'm going to stop saying get out of here

for a while. But um