Toxicology tests have answered the grim question that has hung over the chess world for months. Daniel Naroditsky, the Bay Area-born grandmaster and beloved online coach who died in October, had a mix of stimulants and kratom compounds in his system, and the medical examiner has ruled his death an accident.
Naroditsky, 29, was found unresponsive at his home in Charlotte on Oct. 19, 2025, and was pronounced dead at the scene. The ruling brings official clarity to a community that has spent months speculating, grieving, and refreshing news feeds for something more concrete than rumor.
Medical Examiner: Accidental Poisoning After Drug Cocktail
The North Carolina Office of the Chief Medical Examiner confirmed to PEOPLE that Naroditsky’s toxicology report detected methamphetamine, amphetamine, and the kratom-related alkaloids mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine. The official cause of death was listed as “accidental poisoning after ingesting a drug cocktail.”
According to police incident records, emergency responders were called to a private residence in the southern Charlotte suburbs on Oct. 19, where they found an unresponsive man. The medical examiner finalized the accidental-poisoning ruling after laboratory testing of collected samples.
How That Chemical Mix Can Hit the Heart and Brain
Mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine, the primary psychoactive alkaloids in kratom, have been linked in clinical reviews to tachycardia and hypertension and, in case reports, to cardiac arrhythmia. Those risks climb when kratom is used alongside other substances rather than on its own…