By the time authorities released the toxicology findings on Daniel Naroditsky, one thing still had not appeared on any official form. The state of North Carolina had not publicly said how, or why, one of its most prominent chess players died.
A Rising Star Found Dead At 29
American grandmaster Daniel Naroditsky was 29 when he was found dead at his home in Charlotte, North Carolina, in October, according to reporting by Fox News Digital. The outlet cites family members who said that, in the period before his death, he had been accused online of using computer “chess engines” to cheat in internet games.
Naroditsky was not a marginal figure in the chess world. He earned the grandmaster title at 18, built a large following on YouTube and Twitch, and, according to Fox News Digital, defeated elite Italian American grandmaster Fabiano Caruana in 2021 while maintaining a top 25 ranking as an adult. He won the U.S. National Blitz Championship only months before his death.
His body was found on his couch by fellow grandmaster Oleksandr Bortnyk, Fox News Digital reported, citing the Daily Mail. Local authorities have not alleged foul play publicly, and no criminal charges related to his death have been reported.
What The Toxicology Report Shows
The most concrete new information to emerge in recent months has come from the state medical examiner’s office. A toxicology report provided to NBC News by the North Carolina Office of the Chief Medical Examiner found four substances in Naroditsky’s system:
Item 1: Methamphetamine.
Item 2: Amphetamine.
Item 3: 7-hydroxymitragynine.
Item 4: Mitragynine.
Methamphetamine and amphetamine are powerful stimulants that can be prescribed in certain medical contexts or obtained illicitly. The other two listed compounds, mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine, are the primary active alkaloids in kratom, a plant-based substance that some people use for pain relief or mood effects.
US chess grandmaster Daniel Naroditsky had cocktail of drugs in system at time of death https://t.co/E6g33xtD7e pic.twitter.com/sdqVVObyYT
— New York Post (@nypost) January 20, 2026
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has repeatedly warned that kratom has opioid-like properties and has been linked to dependence, withdrawal symptoms and, in some cases, deaths, particularly when combined with other substances. The agency states that it has not approved kratom for any medical use and has urged consumers not to use products containing it.[FDA]
What the toxicology report does not do, at least in public, is connect those findings to an official conclusion about how Naroditsky died. According to both Fox News Digital and NBC News, the medical examiner has not yet released the manner of death. That classification would typically state whether a death was ruled natural, accidental, suicide, homicide or undetermined.
The North Carolina Office of the Chief Medical Examiner declined a request for comment from Fox News Digital. The office has not publicly explained why the manner of death remains withheld or unresolved, nor has it released any full autopsy report in open records cited in current reporting.
Cheating Allegations And A Public Feud
The toxicology findings landed in a chess world that had already been debating Naroditsky’s name for other reasons. About a year before his death, Russian former world champion Vladimir Kramnik accused Naroditsky of cheating in online chess games, according to Fox News Digital’s earlier coverage of the dispute.
Kramnik, who has become an outspoken critic of alleged engine-assisted cheating in online play, repeatedly posted about Naroditsky on social media. Fox News Digital reports that he did so without providing evidence to support the specific allegations in public. Chess platforms mentioned in earlier cheating debates have not publicly substantiated accusations against Naroditsky.
https://t.co/JPPr32SrwM
My official statement coming soon pic.twitter.com/sCeSsmCamQ— Vladimir Kramnik (@VBkramnik) January 20, 2026
Naroditsky, in turn, denied cheating. According to Fox News Digital, he said that Kramnik was “trying to ruin his life” and described the posts as an intense and unfounded personal attack. At the time of the reporting, he continued to stream and compete online, and no formal cheating sanctions against him had been announced by major chess platforms.
How Chess Authorities Responded
The dispute eventually reached the sport’s global governing body. Arkady Dvorkovich, president of FIDE, the International Chess Federation, referred Kramnik’s statements about Naroditsky to FIDE’s ethics and disciplinary commission, Fox News Digital reported.
According to that reporting, Dvorkovich said “appropriate action” would be taken if the commission found evidence of harassment or bullying. Publicly available statements have not detailed any final decision by that body regarding Kramnik’s comments about Naroditsky, nor have they described any specific remedy.
The fact that the case moved into FIDE’s ethics channels highlights how disputes over alleged online cheating have shifted from informal forums into formal processes. In other recent high-profile chess conflicts involving engine cheating claims, organizers and platforms have relied on internal detection systems and nonpublic data to justify actions, leaving the broader community to interpret limited information through media reports and partial statements.
What Is Known, And What Is Not
Several elements of Daniel Naroditsky’s final months can be confirmed through current public reporting:
Item 1: He was an active top-level grandmaster with recent competitive success, including a U.S. national blitz title.
Item 2: He was the subject of public cheating accusations by a former world champion, made without published evidence.
Item 3: He forcefully denied those accusations and described them as an effort to destroy his reputation.
Item 4: He was found dead in his Charlotte home in October, with no public allegation by authorities that another person caused his death.
Item 5: A state toxicology report, released through the media, lists methamphetamine, amphetamine and two kratom-related alkaloids in his system.
Item 6: The manner of death has not been disclosed by the medical examiner.There are also significant gaps. Reporters have not been provided with a full autopsy that would describe organ findings, injury patterns or precise concentrations of the detected substances. No official has publicly connected the online harassment dispute to any mental health history, treatment records or other medical context. And FIDE’s ethics commission has not, in documents cited so far, published a detailed analysis of Kramnik’s conduct in relation to Naroditsky specifically.
For Naroditsky’s family, those omissions have been central. In earlier coverage linked by Fox News Digital, his mother raised concerns about the impact of sustained online allegations on her son’s well-being and called for greater accountability for high-profile figures who make repeated public claims without evidence. Those concerns have not yet resulted in any public disciplinary finding against Kramnik.
For medical examiners, the presence of multiple psychoactive substances often complicates classification. Stimulants and kratom alkaloids can interact with underlying health conditions, other medications and each other. Without seeing the full investigative file, including scene findings and medical history, it is not possible from the outside to say whether investigators are debating among several categories, awaiting additional tests or simply choosing not to release a completed determination.
An Open File In A High Profile Death
In many high-profile deaths, the release of toxicology results is treated as an answer. In Daniel Naroditsky’s case, it has functioned more as a partial glimpse into an investigation that remains largely out of public view.
The state has confirmed the presence of four drugs in his system, including methamphetamine and kratom-related compounds. It has not told the public whether his death was ruled an accident, suicide, homicide, natural or undetermined. FIDE acknowledged that one of its most famous former champions was being reviewed by its ethics body over statements about Naroditsky. It has not issued a detailed public ruling on those statements.
Until the North Carolina medical examiner releases a manner of death and chess authorities clarify what, if anything, came of the ethics referral, the official record of how a young grandmaster’s life ended will remain defined as much by silence as by the scattered facts now on the public record.
