How US chess prodigy Daniel Naroditskys life unwound after smear campaign

This was one game he couldn’t win.Daniel Naroditsky, one of the world’s greatest chess players, was a child prodigy who went on to become America’s greatest ambassador for the sport — before baseless allegations of cheating from his childhood hero broke his mental health months before he was found dead in his North Carolina home.  The 29-year-old was found unconscious on his couch on Sunday evening by fellow Grandmaster Oleksandr Bortnyk, who had gone to check on him after losing contact, the chess ace told a Twitch live stream on Monday.Bortnyk, 29, said he let himself in after seeing the television was on, where he found Naroditsky’s lifeless body and called 911.No cause of death has been given yet by cops, who are investigating it as a possible suicide or drug overdose, according to a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD) incident report seen by The Post.Naroditsky’s family described him as “a talented chess player, commentator, and educator, and a cherished member of the chess community, admired and respected by fans and players around the world,” in a statement put out on Monday by Charlotte Chess Center, where he had worked as a coach since 2019.Born and raised in the Bay Area to Jewish parents from the former Soviet Union — his father from Ukraine and his mother from Azerbaijan — Naroditsky was introduced to chess by his brother and dad when he was 6..Just five years later, he became the Northern California K-12 champion and, at 14, he wrote his first book on the game, the Charlotte Observer reported.At 17, he became a grandmaster — the highest possible rank in chess other than world champion — and after graduating from Stanford with a degree in history, he moved to North Carolina, where his friend, Peter Giannatos, had founded the Charlotte Chess Center.“We were kind of the few crazy people that would teach chess all day, and then stay up until like 2 a.m., playing blitz chess and ping pong in the staff lounge, knowing ...