GM Naroditsky is dead

[M ANSARI]

That finally stream is beyond bizarre and totally different to any of his streams. I would like to know why on many games the opposing player would let the time run out before playing first move and letting the games auto abort!!?? Was that a chess.com glitch or was intentional? That seemed to really agitate him.

As far as I understand, the players were aware that he was not in a good state and did not want to be seen farming his rating points.

Indeed it only seemed to make him more upset. I don't know if his opponents were trying to communicate why they were aborting.

OK that makes sense! Actually a very nice gesture by the other players if so. However the few games I saw he was playing quite strong. Even though his mind was somewhere else, he was still able to beat 3000+ ELO rated players with some really good games. This is why I think Kramnik's mentioning of drugs is beyond vile! Someone on drugs will find it very difficult to keep a blitz game thread against a 3000+ ELO opponent. More likely it was someone in pain and mentally struggling and breaking down live on the stream. Really was difficult to watch that stream, especially if you have followed many of his other streams. My heart really goes out to his family also as it seems his dad was asking him to quit playing and go to bed yet he just wanted to play a few more games to keep his mind off what was really bothering him.

As for Kramnik ... he really comes out as a villain here. I mean I give him credit for dramatically improving the percentage of online cheating ... I actually notice it in online games ... definitely not as much cheating online as before. But the problem is that he put his ego in the mix and it became anyone who beats him must have done so by cheating. I have watched Kramnik play online and really if I had to put an ELO strength for him playing with time running out ... I would rate it at 1800 ELO or less !!! He totally sucks at it for someone who is probably 3200 ELO+ at slower time controls. I am guessing that for 10 people that he accused, probably 1 or 2 were cheating, while the rest are totally innocent. I remember looking at his statistics when he accused Hikaru of cheating ... he looked only at results ... not really at the games. In those games Hikaru was totally lost in many many positions, but Hikaru grew up with online blitz and his mouse skills and swindling skills have a lot to do with him winning the vast majority of his games. So looking at statistical results does not factor in other non chess strengths, such as knowing how to pre move and expecting your opponents pre move. Knowing exactly how much time there is left and playing moves that burn time to play when time is running down. I think Daniel being of Russian decent and having Kramnik as an idol as a child makes a huge difference when Kramnik is the accuser. Hikaru just brushed it off as silly and moved on, while Daniel really took it personally.