The distressing 911 call capturing the frantic pleas of two friends who discovered chess grandmaster Daniel Naroditsky’s unresponsive body has been released by the Daily Mail. The incident unfolded last week at Naroditsky’s residence.

Oleksandr Bortnyk, also a grandmaster, alongside Peter Giannatos, the founder of the Charlotte Chess Center, stumbled upon the tragic scene on October 19, after growing concerned when Naroditsky had not been in contact for more than a day.

In the recording, Giannatos can be heard emotionally shouting, “Medic, medic, medic!” as he calls for urgent assistance for the 29-year-old, who was found motionless on his sofa.

The 911 dispatcher instructed them, “Listen carefully, we need to get him flat on his back on the floor and clear anything from beneath his head,” guiding them through the necessary steps.

Giannatos, struggling to compose himself, responded with a tearful, “Okay,” as captured in the audio.

The call was made from Naroditsky’s townhouse shortly after 7pm less than two days after he experienced an emotional breakdown during a livestream video Friday night into Saturday morning.

Bortnyk, 29, and Giannatos, 34, who were at the home during that manic livestream, could be heard in the background of the video threatening to pull the plug. 

But Naroditsky continued his chess marathon with subscribers for over two hours, ranting about the need to prove himself after former Russian chess world champion Vladimir Kramnik had accused him of cheating.

The two friends returned to the home that Sunday evening after having no contact for the past 24 hours.

In the 911 call two days later, the female operator asked sobbing Giannatos to ‘tell me exactly what happened.’

‘He wasn’t responding to us,’ Giannatos cried, ‘and I went and did a wellness check, and he’s passed out on the couch. But he’s not responsive.’

The operator told him to step inside the home and asked whether the victim was still breathing.

‘I don’t think so,’ he replied, his voice quivering.

‘Okay, I’m sending the paramedics now to help you,’ the operator informed him. ‘Stay on the line. I’m going to tell you exactly what to do next, okay?’

Giannatos explained they hadn’t seen Naroditsky since Saturday.

After telling the operator he had no defibrillator, Bortnyk was instructed to put his phone on speaker.

‘Listen carefully, we’re going to try and get him to lie flatly on his back on the floor and remove anything under his head, okay?’ She instructed.

‘Okay,’ Giannatos replied.

‘Were you able to get him on the floor?’ the operator said.

‘Um, I’m doing that now,’ he said, then noted that a police officer had just arrived.

Fire and EMS were also on the way, he was informed.

As Daily Mail exclusively reported, police believe that Naroditsky may have either killed himself at his North Carolina home or died from an accidental overdose. 

We understand there were no pills or alcohol near his body.

For months he had been tormented by unfounded claims from former World Number One Kramnik, 50, that he had cheated in online games by using a supercomputer that gave the best possible moves.

Naroditsky’s public breakdown unfolded before hundreds of subscribers to his video channel.

Giannatos told the Daily Mail in an exclusive interview last week that after finally convincing him to cut the live feed, he and Bortnyk chatted with him ‘extensively’ without revealing what the talks were about.

They then left him alone in the home during the overnight hours around 3am. But Chess.com records show that Naroditsky logged back on and continued playing until 5.39am.

Late Saturday morning, Naroditsky participated in an online Comet sponsored chess event, Giannatos said. He played more games after the event until 5.03pm.

It was the following evening on Sunday, that he and Bortnyk returned to their friend’s duplex in the Ballantyne area of Charlotte.

‘We saw him on the couch from a window,’ Giannatos told the Daily Mail in a text conversation. 

‘After knocking and ringing the doorbell, I then went into the home and discovered him. I then went outside and asked Bortnyk to call 911.’

Bortnyk then joined him inside.

‘He then passed me the phone and I was on the phone with the dispatcher before the police and medics came shortly after,’ Giannatos said.

There were no signs of foul play and investigators do not suspect any criminal activity.

The video streamed live provided a concerning window into the young man’s mental state shortly before his death.

‘Okay, who else wants to receive a beating?’ wild-eyed Naroditsky declared at just over the two-hour mark of the live stream.

Naroditsky, audibly sighing and burying his head in his hands, again brought up the Kramnik’s cheating allegations.

‘The problem is ever since the Kramnik stuff, I feel like if I start doing well, the people assume the worst of intentions,’ he despaired.

‘I know what you mean, but you don’t have anything to prove to those people,’ the friend responded.

The International Chess Federation, chess’s governing body, has announced it is investigating possible disciplinary action against Kramnik who was world champion from 2000 to 2006.

Naroditsky’s final moves are preserved in the livestream footage of him playing chess at his desk in his home office in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Daily Mail shed light on the chess master’s final hours last week, revealing Naroditsky appeared to have been in a deep crisis in the middle of a live broadcast.

He seemed erratic and agitated. He had been on air for a matter of minutes when he initially alluded to the man he was convinced was trying to ruin his life, but he was winning on the board, so the more troubling signs were slower to arrive.

Gradually, it got darker – with a monologue 43 minutes in, again about the man, or rather the consequence of what he had been spreading: ‘I could not live if I knew that some carry the notion that I am morally bankrupt.’

By then, he had played five and had won three, but soon the losses came. Ten in a row, with his mood increasingly worsening. 

Some time after the broadcast finally ended in the early hours of last Saturday morning, Naroditsky, aged just 29, died. Police suspect suicide or an accidental overdose.

It was not until the following evening that his lifeless body slumped on a sofa was discovered by concerned chess–playing friends who went to check on him at his home in North Carolina because he wasn’t answering his phone.

All over the world last week, chess enthusiasts who have been drawn by the American’s passion, enthusiasm, and wisdom for the game have been digesting Naroditsky’s tragic unexplained death.

For it has exposed a toxic underbelly in this most cerebral of recreations, a world of bullying and harassment where rivalry collides with envy and false claims of cheating are tossed around with abandon.

Many of the leading competitors are often highly strung and sensitive. Position and reputation are fiercely defended, especially when claims of cheating are casually thrown around, amplified as ever by pernicious social media.

And it is the allegations of cheating which so tormented Naroditsky. 

Police in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he lived in a smart three–bedroom townhouse for which he paid $490,000 in 2021, and where his body was found, continue to keep an open mind about the cause of death of this otherwise seemingly fit and healthy man.

Naroditsky was a child prodigy who began playing chess aged six. He won the world under–12 championship, too, while living in the United States, adopted country of his Azerbaijan–born parents. At 17, he reached grandmaster status.

Then, after graduating in history from Stanford University in 2019, Naroditsky became one of the leading figures in the world of so–called bullet chess in which players can have only a minute to make all of their moves.

More than anyone, he helped popularize this fast–paced version of the game, which appealed to a younger audience. 

His live–streaming inspired hundreds of thousands to take up this exciting form of chess.

At the time of his death Naroditsky was reputed to be the 22nd best bullet player in the world.