Overview
- He died on Sunday, Oct. 19, with the announcement shared by the Charlotte Chess Center on Monday at the family's request for privacy.
- International and U.S. chess federations posted tributes, and top American player Hikaru Nakamura wrote that he was devastated by the news.
- He was a grandmaster known as a commentator, educator and coach, as well as a widely followed online creator often called "Danya" by fans.
- His channels drew large audiences, with about 500,000 subscribers on YouTube and 340,000 followers on Twitch for instructional videos and live play.
- He won the World Under-12 title in 2007 and the U.S. Junior Championship in 2013, graduated from Stanford, lived in Charlotte, and in 2022 became a New York Times chess columnist.