Timeline of events
23.05.2025 Navara publishes an open letter about Kramnik’s actions
23.05.2025 Reactions to Navara’s open letter – Aronian, Polgar, etc
23.05.2025 Navara and Kramnik to meet at FIDE World Rapid and Blitz
24.05.2025 David Navara, “I firmly believe that Mr Dvorkovich should resign”
24.05.2025 Kramnik, “I am deeply disappointed Navara participates in unjust PR campaign against me”
24.05.2025 Kramnik rage-blocks Chessdom over a comment on David Navara’s case
24.05.2025 Live: David Navara at French Top 16
25.05.2025 Kramnik admits to allegations, FIDE has grounds to act
25.05.2025 Open call to action for FIDE
26.05.2025 David Navara now has personal chess calendar
26.05.2025 Czech Chess Federation: We stand behind chess legend GM David Navara
28.05.2025 MrDodgy : “Kramnik bullies Navara, will he be satisfied if he ends in hospital or worse?”
29.05.2025 Emil Sutovsky : “I find Kramnik’s latest address to David Navara inhuman”
12.06.2025 David Navara: “When I heard Kramnik’s reaction, I slept really poorly”
26.06.2025 Official Statement of Hetman GKS Katowice Chess Club + Keti Tsatsalashvili of support of David Navara
28.06.2025 Levon Aronian addresses Kramnik’s lawsuit threats towards David Navara
29.06.2025 FIDE addresses the Kramnik vs Navara case
29.06.2025 The entire Nový Bor Chess Club stands firmly behind David Navara
29.06.2025 Prague International Chess Festival thanks cFIDE for taking a clear stance on Kramnik vs Navara
04.07.2025 David Navara in an interview with Greg Mustreader
08.07.2025 Average centipawn loss vs Avereage Relative Centipawn loss in Kramnik vs Navara
Cheating in chess is wrong. But accusing, alleging or insinuating cheating of an innocent person is worse. The psychological implications, potential career damage, and emotional torture are hard to describe.
In a brave public act, David Navara explains in details what he went through after the baseless allegations of Kramnik.
“After reading [Kramnik’s] comments I got very depressed. I had to contact a psychiatrist and a psychotherapist soon after reading GM Kramnik’s tweet, as it put me completely out of balance.“
David Navara says, “I was shocked and angry. My sleep and concentration were affected heavily. I quickly wrote to FIDE, sending them a complaint against GM Kramnik. I believed (and still believe) that GM Kramnik’s tweet was clearly wrong, and therefore wanted to react quickly and resolutely. This was perhaps a mistake, as I should have consulted a lawyer before taking action, to learn about the legal aspects first.“
Despite writing multiple complaints to FIDE, there has been no reaction to David Navara’s letters. “Alas, apart from Professor Regan, there was a total silence on the FIDE side for more than half a year. Given that I do not have social media, I was unable to find the details of GM Kramnik’s statistic. In the initial eight days after seeing GM Kramnik’s tweet I was feeling awful. I wrote many e-mails to FIDE, bringing arguments in my defence”
Read the full and detailed blogpost of David Navara on Chess.com / Read the full and detailed blogpost on Lichess by David Navara
Update: 25.05
New in Chess publishes a detailed podcast with David Navara. In the summary of the podcast we find, “Finally, we spoke about something that has been troubling him for many months now. How he was dragged into Vladimir Kramnik’s troubling crusade against cheating. Although Kramnik claims that he never accused David of any misbehaviour, he did include him in a list of seemingly suspect results.”
On the New in Chess podcast on Amazon music, “David Navara Addresses Kramnik Cheating Insinuations, His Life In Chess And…” Further down in the content we find the chapters, “Cheating allegations made by Vladimir Kramnik” and “What did the allegations do to David?“
On Spring Cast FM the title of the podcast was initially stronger, “David Navara addresses Vladimir Kramnik’s cheating accusations, discussing mental health and other topics in a recent interview.” (screenshot below)
Whatever the correct term is (accusation, allegation, or insinuation), Vladimir Kramnik himself called it “allegation” in a post on social media – we will stick to Kramnik’s own definition on Chessdom, as it is enough for FIDE to act, enforcing its own rules.
At Chessdom we have missed the initial breaking story by David Navara, which happened in 2024. Hikaru Nakamura explains in his video last year, “[2:22] When David Navara suddenly says what is going on and why is someone accusing me of cheating like this, it’s absolutely insane.” Nakamura continues by citing the post, “[10:30] It is normal for sportpeople to have ups and downs. Even grandmaster Kramnik had better and worse periods in his great career. Given that he knows very well how unpleasant and insulting it is to be accused without proper evidence, I think that he should be more careful in his statements, especially when he publishes them on social media.” to which Nakamura comments, “This is Navara being as nice as you possibly can on this topic because this is simply the reality: Kramnik knows full well what he’s doing and he knows full well that it’s wrong, and yet he keeps doing it because he can’t admit that he’s wrong. He just needs that validation or something along those lines, and so he keeps going down this rabbit hole and he keeps accusing people over and over and over again.”
Another great resource is the SayChess article by Martin B. Justesen, titled,”Kramnik’s Cheating Gambit: Why is Vladimir Kramnik risking his reputation and legacy by accusing people left and right of cheating in Title Tuesday on Chess.com?“
Context (28.05)
Kramnik is known to have published numerous articles and videos regarding cheating in chess. On multiple occasions he uses a small sample size. As a result, his conclusions may be perceived as accusations (this is the case in a multitude of well documented videos, articles, and opinions by experts here, here, here, here are just a few examples), allegations, or suspicions about cheating in chess, and even as insults to players’ professionalism. Despite how each individual perceives his words, on Chessdom, starting 25 May, we have adopted a term that Vladimir Kramnik used himself – allegations.
In accordance with established journalistic practices, we work with information and quotations from sources, including Kramnik himself. Kramnik has never contacted Chessdom via its official communication channel posted in the header of the website. Our attempt to contact Kramnik was futile and met with a swift block. The latest threats by Kramnik on social media leave little room for any good-faith discussions (further details to follow)
Regardless, we stand by accuracy, fairness, and independence of journalism and will continue reporting on the Kramnik – Navara case and its tremendous social importance.
