The Notable Death Thread
- Thread starter Iain Aschendale
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GM Danya Naroditsky, age 29. I can't believe it. He was the best chess instructor on youtube. If you play chess seriously, you know why.
No ending at that age can be good. Poor guy.
No ending at that age can be good. Poor guy.
ACE was a very good guitar player. RIP.
GM Danya Naroditsky, age 29. I can't believe it. He was the best chess instructor on youtube. If you play chess seriously, you know why.
No ending at that age can be good. Poor guy.
I've studied and played chess nearly all my life. I haven't played seriously, i.e. in tournaments for years (other things took over), but I watched Danya's videos for a while.
There appear to be suspicious circumstances surrounding his death, at least according to GM and former world champion Vladimir Kramnik. Here, from the India Times.
But I'm not one to speculate, I don't know the facts well enough. Danya was one of the nicest, most wholesome gentlemen on the chess scene, and a great writer to boot. Reminds me of Kasparov at an earlier age. May his memory be blessed.
It's worse than you think. Kramnik is the main suspect. He's suggesting foul play only to distract from his own blame, or maybe this is him being flippant. I don't know. He doesn't seem like a good guy . . . he hasn't for a while. He hounded Naroditsky mercilessly with cheating allegations. The whole premise was really crazy. Now, maybe Danya's death was from an embolism or an accidental mix of medication -- those things are possible -- but he was in a bad place. It was 100% because of Kramnik. The idea that he would cheat with a computer to beat low-rated players is so stupid, I'm not sure I can put it into words.
I was listening to Hikaru talk about this since he knew Danya well. (They would have adoption matches, which is when you beat another player 10 times in a row. They are now adopted and become your child, haha. The ultimate humiliation. Some GMs are really quite funny.) Hikaru pointed out that Danya was 100% fluent in Russian and was getting hounded from the Russian press/fans too. Westerners didn't see that part of it. I know he tried to defend himself with the Russian press, but Kramnik had far more clout there since he's a national hero.
It's really quite horrible. This is all about someone with prestige destroying someone else professionally and driving them to the brink. It's strange to see it with chess GMs, but we've seen similar things in other fields. Or even with kids in school. You hear that story all the time.
They haven't released the cause of death, and maybe it was accidental, but Danya was definitely under attack. I really feel sorry for him. I hope he didn't die in despair.
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Seven Crowns, it may sound like a horror movie, but to be honest, I'd totally believe it ... especially given the history of Russia (and especially Russian politicians and the press) being so discriminatory, especially against Jews and other minorities. (That kind of virulent discrimination is exactly why my family left Russia).
I wouldn't be surprised if Kramnik was consumed with jealousy and envy of his younger rival, the kind of envy that eats at you from within (like a cancer), to get to that point. I remember reading about when Kasparov was playing Anatoly Karpov for the World Championship in the early-mid 1980s, and the Russian press was similarly anti-Kasparov -- and for exactly the same reason: Kasparov was Jewish.
The same thing happened when Spassky was playing Fischer in the 70s (but maybe not quite the same degree, since both Spassky and Fischer were Jewish).
The more things change...?
I wouldn't be surprised if Kramnik was consumed with jealousy and envy of his younger rival, the kind of envy that eats at you from within (like a cancer), to get to that point. I remember reading about when Kasparov was playing Anatoly Karpov for the World Championship in the early-mid 1980s, and the Russian press was similarly anti-Kasparov -- and for exactly the same reason: Kasparov was Jewish.
The same thing happened when Spassky was playing Fischer in the 70s (but maybe not quite the same degree, since both Spassky and Fischer were Jewish).The more things change...?
Seven Crowns, it may sound like a horror movie, but to be honest, I'd totally believe it ... especially given the history of Russia (and especially Russian politicians and the press) being so discriminatory, especially against Jews and other minorities. (That kind of virulent discrimination is exactly why my family left Russia).
I wouldn't be surprised if Kramnik was consumed with jealousy and envy of his younger rival, the kind of envy that eats at you from within (like a cancer), to get to that point. I remember reading about when Kasparov was playing Anatoly Karpov for the World Championship in the early-mid 1980s, and the Russian press was similarly anti-Kasparov -- and for exactly the same reason: Kasparov was Jewish.
The more things change...?
True. It's the same history again and again.
Man, this is 49 day old news but I just learned that Maru the cat died on Sept 6th. You may know of him as the Sliding Box cat. It's nuts that an animal who I never met affects me this much, but I grew up with lots of cats in the house but Japanese apartments (generally) don't allow pets, so this weird little (!?) internet kitty has been the closest thing I've had to a pet for the last nearly two decades. He had a good life and a good run.
For anyone who's not aware (or may have forgotten), from google:
Maru was a male Scottish Straight cat in Japan who became popular on YouTube. Videos featuring Maru have been viewed over 577 million times and at one point he held the Guinness World Records for the most YouTube video views of an individual animal. Maru was described as the "most famous cat on the internet".
RIP Maru, one of the first big internet cats.
May he cross over the rainbow bridge safely.
Maru was a male Scottish Straight cat in Japan who became popular on YouTube. Videos featuring Maru have been viewed over 577 million times and at one point he held the Guinness World Records for the most YouTube video views of an individual animal. Maru was described as the "most famous cat on the internet".
RIP Maru, one of the first big internet cats.
May he cross over the rainbow bridge safely.Farewell Mama Robinson.
Prunella Scales died yesterday aged 93. Her husband Timothy West passed away about this time last year - she was best known as "Sybil" in the BBC comedy series Fawlty Towers, a character which she made very much her own, but both made great contributions to the art-world through their acting, and in the world of canal-boating in the UK.
Oh, I loved Prunella Scales as "Sybil" in Fawlty Towers.
"BASIL!!!" *cue John Cleese dropping everything and trying to hide*
Her phone conversations to her friends were also hilarious. "Oh, I know ... I know ...."
"BASIL!!!" *cue John Cleese dropping everything and trying to hide*
Her phone conversations to her friends were also hilarious. "Oh, I know ... I know ...."
James Watson of "Watson and Crick" fame.
DNA pioneer James Watson dies at 97
What a confusing legacy. .
DNA pioneer James Watson dies at 97
What a confusing legacy. .
True. And there's also some truth in what some wag said about what Crick and Watson's most notable discovery was: Rosalynd Franklin's notes.
Look it up here if you don't get the point: Rosalind Franklin - Wikipedia
On topic of chess: I like to play it but haven't played for a long time, I have a younger cousin who went to European and world championships in chess (and studied psychology later), I guess it runs in part of the family, it's something my grandmother taught me when I was 5 or 6 and I'd often play with her and the older members of my family and sometimes in school. The Queen's Gambit series somewhat popularized chess.
I played for a while in my twenties, even bought a book of problems and worked my way through some of them. Never got very good, though.
