Viral video of blindfolded Charlotte chess players brings renewed attention to the game

CHARLOTTE, NC — Daniel Naroditsky is a chess king in the Queen City. He’s currently ranked 150th in the world. He’s so good he can play the game blindfolded and so he did.

A sightless Naroditsky beat his competition in a game of Bullet Chess in just 44 seconds.

The video posted last month, has been viewed 5.5 million times on Instagram.

“I’m a pretty private person. Total introvert, chess player but, it is still crazy. Like when you think about the scale of people who’ve seen it and all the positive comments,” said Naroditsky of the video.

Naroditsky achieved the title of Grandmaster at 18. Which he says is actually quite old for the sport. At the ripe of old age of 29, he know considers himself semi-retired from classical chess.

He now focuses his attention on the faster forms of chess like in the video. He also is a Youtube hit with 475k followers.

“It’s nice to see that chess has this positive association in people’s mind instinctively, rather than this negative association of like old men sitting in basements,” said Naroditsky of the renewed interest in chess.

The Grandmaster now acts as a bit of an Ambassador for chess, especially here in Charlotte and for the Charlotte Chess Center, a group that is also working to grow the game by doing anything from hosting chess nights at local breweries to putting on tournaments of 700 in the Queen City.

A spokesperson for the the charlotte chess center says since Naroditsky’s video went viral, they have seen more people showing up to local events.