Russian chess great Vladimir Kramnik has sued the world chess governing body FIDE for defamation in a Swiss civil court after he was investigated for allegedly harassing players with “unsubstantiated” cheating claims following the death of American Grandmaster Daniel Naroditsky.
Kramnik posted on X, formerly Twitter, that he had to resort to legal action after being relentlessly attacked by fellow players and FIDE, whose CEO Emil Sutovsky described Kramnik’s cheating allegations against Naroditsky as “appalling and outright shameful.”
Human language didnt work
The language of law became unavoidable, unfortunately
My open letter from June
Part 1 pic.twitter.com/HEtSNQapzr— Vladimir Kramnik (@VBkramnik) December 31, 2025
The
exact cause of 29-year-old Naroditsky’s death is unknown, but in his last livestream, he spoke about being under immense mental stress due to Kramnik’s allegations.
Czech Grandmaster David Navara also claimed to have felt distressed and suicidal because of Kramnik’s online cheating accusation against him. Kramnik, however, maintains that his claims are not baseless.
“I have initiated formal legal proceedings against FIDE in accordance with Swiss law in the Court of Lausanne. Under the applicable Swiss procedural rules, an obligatory preliminary procedure must first take place. This phase typically lasts 2-3 months,” said the former world champion.
“The specific legal provisions of the Swiss Code on which the claim is based, as well as the exact amount of financial compensation sought from FIDE, will be finalized and specified by my legal team immediately prior to filing the main claim.
“Additionally, a formal request for the preservation of evidence has been personally delivered to the FIDE headquarters today,” he added.
Kramnik stated that a request has been submitted to ensure all documents, correspondence, electronic records, and any other evidence relevant to the ongoing legal proceedings against FIDE are “properly preserved and not altered, deleted, destroyed, or otherwise made unavailable.”
“I will provide further details in due course as the proceedings advance,” he said.
Criticizing the players who have been vocal against him, including world number one Magnus Carlsen and some prominent Indians like Nihal Sarin, who accused him of being responsible for Naroditsky’s death, Kramnik said, “Several players have publicly named and shamed me.
“None have shown the integrity to apologise or retract their statements, instead ignoring the evidence that I provided in response.”
Kramnik also asserted that his legal claim was not a response to FIDE’s ethics inquiry against him.
“The upcoming court case has little relation to FIDE’s complaint to the Ethics Commission (it merely adds points), my legal claims go far beyond the scope of this FIDE action,” he said.
FIDE opened an ethics inquiry against Kramnik, citing a two-year “pattern of conduct” that hurt players’ dignity.
