Self-mate: suicide in chess
I have no doubt that the spread of chess, especially among the young, performs wonders for the mind. The game disciplines thought, sharpens the power of concentration, and strengthens the faculty of logical reasoning, not least in mathematics. When I was at Trinity College, Cambridge, sharing lodgings for a year with the future King Charles III, I was something of an anomaly. I was reading modern languages; the rest of the Trinity chess team were scientists or mathematicians, all of them destined for first-class honours. Their minds, like the game itself, worked in clean, hard lines — each move a syllogism, each position an equation waiting to be solved.
And yet, beneath this apparent order, there lurks a darker pattern. Over the years, chess has not been kind to all its servants. There is a melancholy roll call of a few of the greatest players whose brilliance was accompanied — or perhaps devoured — by mental instability. Paul Morphy, Wilhelm Steinitz and Harry Nelson Pillsbury all showed disturbing symptoms toward the ends of their lives. It was only Pillsbury — the glorious victor of the first tournament at Hastings in 1895 — who attempted, unsuccessfully, to throw himself from a window. Nineteen years later, the German grandmaster Curt von Bardeleben succeeded where Pillsbury had failed, leaping from his own.
Curt von Bardeleben
The list does not end there. The Armenian master Karen Grigoryan and the Soviet international Georgy Ilivitsky both took their lives in 1989; the Latvian Alvis Vitolins followed in 1997; and the Estonian grandmaster Lembit Oll in 1999. Each of them, like a piece played once too often, fell from the board altogether.
The most recent and tragic case is that of Daniel Naroditsky, the 29-year-old American grandmaster — a player of extraordinary promise, a gifted coach, and a tireless evangelist for the game through the new media of streaming. Earlier this October, he was found dead by friends. Police reports suggest suicide by drug overdose. The chess world, vast and various though it is, mourned him almost as one.
Why should such a mind — alive to every nuance of position, every fleeting chance of victory — turn upon itself? Some claim that Naroditsky had fallen into depression following accusations of cheating by the Russian former world champion Vladimir Kramnik. If those accusations were false — and no credible figure in the chess fraternity supported them — then suicide seems a tragically disproportionate response. But the mind under strain is not a rational instrument. Chess, that most rational of games, can be merciless to those who live within it too intensely. One may spend years learning to calculate every consequence, only to find oneself defenceless before one’s own despair.
For now, the official cause of death remains uncertain. Kramnik has been referred to the FIDÉ Ethics Commission. Whatever the outcome, it will not restore a life that once embodied so much of what is admirable in the game.
To end on a brighter note, I have replayed one of Naroditsky’s recent games — a brisk affair in the hyper-rapid style he so favoured. It is a miniature of deceptive simplicity: a sudden strike down the f-file, a flurry of tactics, and then calm capitulation by his illustrious victim. It is, I think, a fitting emblem of his style — and of the mind behind it.
Magnus Carlsen vs. Daniel Naroditsky
Bullet Chess Championship (other), 2023, chess.com, rd. 28
1. e4 Nf6 2. e5 Nd5 3. Nf3 d6 4. d4 dxe5 5. Nxe5 c6 6. Be2 Bf5 7. Nf3
A new move, and a sensible rationalisation of forces. Usually, 7. O-O is played.
7… Nd7 8. O-O e6 9. c4 N5f6 10. Nc3 Bd6 11. Nh4 Bg6 12. g3 O-O 13. Bf3 Re8 14. Bg5
Having returned to a main line by transposition, this move departs from the theoretical 14. Re1 [Kamsky-Domingo Nunez, chess.com, 2023], or 14… Nxg6!, played later [Teclaf-Markus, Bundesliga Hamburg, 2024]. It has little to commend it other than novelty.
14… Qc7 15. Nxg6 hxg6 16. c5 Bf8 17. Bf4?
Naroditsky’s last move was to prepare Black’s next, one that Carlsen mistakenly encourages.
17… e5!
Black now carries with him a slight initiative.
18. dxe5 Nxe5 19. Bg2 Bxc5 20. Qc2 Bd6?!
Understandable, but the engine prefers either, 20… Bb6 or …a6.
21. Rad1 Rad8 22. h3 Nc4 23. Bg5 Be7 24. b3 Rxd1 25. Rxd1 Nd6 26. Bf4 Rd8 27. Ne4 Nfxe4 28. Bxe4 Qc8 29. Bg2 Nf5 30. Rxd8+ Qxd8 31. h4 Qd4 32. Be4 Bd6 33. Bxf5
But not, 33. Bxd6 Nxd6.
33… Bxf4 34. Bxg6?
One attempt to complicate too many. White had full equality after either of:
a) 34. gxf4 gxf5 35. Qxf5 Qd8 36. h5 b5 37. b4 Qd5 38. Qg4; or,
b) 34. Qd3 Qa1+ 35. Qb1 Qe5 36. Bh3 Bxg3 37. fxg3 Qxg3+ 38. Bg2 Qxh4.
After this mistake, Black has a tangible advantage with negligible time remaining.
34… Bxg3 35. Bh7+ Kh8 36. h5??
A terminal error, overlooking either mate in one or a grave loss of material. After 36. Bg5 Bxh4, despite the two pawn deficit, White retains some chances to salvage a draw, due to the opposite coloured bishop ending.
36… Qxf2+ White resigns 0-1
White is destroyed after 37. Qxf2 (37. Kh1 Qf1#) 37… Bxf2+ 38. Kxf2 Kxh7 39. Kg3 Kh6 40. Kh4 f5 41. b4 a5 42. b5 cxb5 43. Kg3 Kxh5
Ray’s 206th book, “ Chess in the Year of the King ”, written in collaboration with Adam Black, and his 207th, “ Napoleon and Goethe: The Touchstone of Genius ” (which discusses their relationship with chess) can be ordered from both Amazon and Blackwells. His 208th, the world record for chess books, written jointly with chess playing artist Barry Martin, Chess through the Looking Glass, is now also available from Amazon.
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