Photo by LavaPK/CC0 via Wikimedia Commons
24 year old GM Daniel “Danya” Naroditsky is one of the top players in the US, and won many scholastic titles in his career, including the 2007 World Under 12 Championship. He also has written two chess books, and graduated last year from Stanford University with a degree in history. Since graduating, Danya has relocated to Charlotte, North Carolina and turned his attention to chess full time. Aside from his classical chess accomplishments, Danya is making a name for himself as an entertaining and insightful Chess.com announcer, Twitch Streamer and Youtube presenter. GM Naroditsky is especially talented at fast chess, and has had many blitz and bullet battles with the likes of GM Magnus Carlsen, GM Alireza Firouzja and GM Andrew Tang. Danya sometimes wins and sometimes loses these matches, but the results are always entertaining. In our interview, we discuss Danya’s many roles in the chess world, and Danya also provides the usual helping of chess improvement talk and entertaining stories. Please read on for more details and timestamps.
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0:00- We begin by discussing GM Daniel Naroditsky’s favorite Perpetual Chess interviews and the dramatic conclusion to the recent tournament, Impact Chess, which concluded last week.
Mentioned: Perpetual Chess Episode 46 with IM John Watson, Perpetual Chess Episode 190 with Andrew Zinn, GM Magnus Carlsen, GM Hikaru Nakamura
7:30- I love watching Danya play blitz, so I had to ask him about his rise up the ranks, and his battles with the likes of Magnus Carlsen, Andrew Tang and other great bullet and blitz players.
Mentioned: Mechanics Institute Chess Club in San Francisco, IM John Donaldson
14:00- Our conversation segues into Danya’s practical advice for improving at fast chess, expanding on a great series he wrote for Chess.com, starting with The Blitz Chess Manifesto:
https://www.chess.com/article/view/the-blitz-chess-manifesto
Mentioned: How to be Lucky in Chess: The Swindle, GM Hikaru Nakamura, GM Alireza Firouzja
24:00- Perpetual Chess is brought to you in part by Chessable.com. Chessable is constantly releasing new courses utilizing its MoveTrainer technology. It helps players assimilate patterns and learn opening lines efficiently. One of their latest is a brand new course on the French by Super GM Anish Giri. Check out a free mini-course on it here:
https://www.chessable.com/short-sweet-french-defense/course/48354/
24:30- We delve more into Danya’s blitz escapades including some great stories of his first encounters with Magnus Carlsen in online blitz.
Mentioned: Limitless, Daniel’s YouTube Video- One of My Best Wins Against the World Champion:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9rd97X9Too
34:45- How could Danya get better at fast chess? What could he do to crack 2700 ELO at Classical Chess?
Mentioned: GM Lev Psakhis, FIDE World Cup
44:00- Despite Danya’s success with multiple chess platforms, chess teaching remains his #1 passion? Why? And what are the pros and cons of streaming?
Mentioned: IM Levy Rozman
55:00- a Patreon supporter of the podcast writes in to ask Danya to discuss a story he had heard about Danya’s taking tons of notes about his games when he was a child. If you are interested in supporting Perpetual Chess and submitting questions for guests, you can find out more here: https://www.perpetualchesspod.com/donate
Mentioned: Mastering Positional Chess, Mastering Complex Endgames
1:01:30- Danya tells a great story of a personal encounter, as a promising young chess player, with Garry Kasparov. Then he names a few of his favorite books.
Learn from the Legends, Zurich 1953, My 60 Memorable Games, Capablanca’s Chess Primer, IM John Donaldson
1:04:30- We talk chess improvement, as I ask Danya the age old question of how to manage chess study time.
Mentioned: The Best Move
1:07:30- GM Naroditsky answers a Patreon mailbag question regarding whether he enjoys announcing scholastic tournaments, and how the presentation of these events could be improved.
Mentioned: GM Robert Hess, Chess.com’s “I am Not a GM tournament”
1:11:00- Why are all these Chess Twitch stars so good at chess impersonations? Here is Danya doing GM Yasser Seirawan and GM Garry Kasparov
Mentioned: IM Levy Rozman, GM Aman Hambleton, GM Alexander Grischuk
1:14:00- Why did Daniel relocate to Charlotte, and how is life there?
Mentioned: FM Peter Giannatos, Charlotte Chess Center and Scholastic Academy, Charlotte Chess Center Summer 2020 Norm Invitationals
1:19:00- Thanks so much to GM Naroditsky for his insights, impersonations and fun stories. Here is how to keep up with him:
His Website- http://danielnaroditskychess.com/Home.html
YouTube- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHP9CdeguNUI-_nBv_UXBhw
Twitch-https://www.twitch.tv/GMNaroditsky
Twitter-https://twitter.com/gmnaroditsky?lang=en