Naroditsky Memorial Rapid & Blitz set for July, Nakamura heads the field

by Carlos Alberto Colodro
3/14/2026 – The inaugural Naroditsky Memorial Rapid & Blitz will be held in Charlotte, North Carolina, from 3 to 5 July 2026, combining open tournaments with elite showcase events across a three-day festival. Featuring a guaranteed $50,000 prize fund and offering FIDE Circuit and US Chess Grand Prix points, the competition is open to players of all ratings, with participation limited to 300 entrants. Top seed Hikaru Nakamura is set to headline a programme that also includes a Creator Invitational and blitz finals.
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Honouring a great speed chess player

A new speed-chess festival will make its debut in the United States this summer with the staging of the inaugural Naroditsky Memorial Rapid & Blitz. The event is scheduled for 3–5 July 2026 at the Marriott City Center in downtown Charlotte, North Carolina, and will feature both an open competition and elite-level showcase contests across three days of play.

The festival is organised in memory of grandmaster Daniel Naroditsky, whose contribution to competitive chess, coaching and online content helped shape a broad international audience for the game. Financial backing for the tournament has been provided by the Naroditsky Memorial Fellowship Fund, which has raised more than one million dollars to support initiatives connected with his legacy.

The tournament offers a guaranteed total prize fund of $50,000 and will award points towards both the FIDE Circuit and the US Chess Grand Prix standings. Participation is open to players of all levels, from titled professionals to amateurs, although entry for the first edition has been capped at 300 competitors.

The programme combines competitive tournaments with community-focused activities.

  • Friday will be devoted to a 7-round rapid competition, divided into Masters and Challengers sections.
  • On Saturday, participants will contest an 11-round blitz event, again split into the same two sections.
  • Sunday's schedule includes a Creator Invitational featuring prominent online personalities, followed by the Blitz Finals, in which the top ten finishers from the Masters blitz section will compete for overall honours.

Find more details of each event's format below.

Top seed for the event is US grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura, who heads a field which already includes a number of leading specialists in faster time controls: among others, Wesley So, Javokhir Sindarov, Hans Niemann and Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus. See here the full list of players.

Daniel Naroditsky Memorial 2026

Alongside established professionals, the festival will also bring together well-known figures from the online chess scene. The participants of the Creator Invitational are Levy Rozman, Andrea Botez, Alexandra Botez, Dina Belenkaya, Eric Rosen, Aman Hambleton, Sagar Shah, Julien Song, John Bartholomew and Danny Rensch.

Daniel Naroditsky Memorial 2026

Formats

Rapid Championship (Friday)

  • 7 Rounds
  • Time Control: G/10 minutes + 5-second increment
  • US Chess and FIDE Rated
  • 200 US Chess Grand Prix Points (enhanced); FIDE Circuit Event

Blitz Championship (Saturday)

  • 11 Rounds
  • Time Control: G/3 minutes + 2-second increment
  • US Chess and FIDE Rated
  • Top 10 players qualify to Sunday Blitz Final. 150 US Chess Grand Prix Points; FIDE Circuit Event

Blitz Final (Sunday)​

  • 9 Rounds
  • Time Control: G/3 minutes; + 2-second increment
  • US Chess and FIDE Rated
  • Single Round Robin
  • 200 US Chess Grand Prix Points (Enhanced); FIDE Circuit Event
  • Players: Top 10 players from Saturday in the Masters section only. Players TBD - Based on Saturday blitz results
  • Blitz Final Page Here

Creator Invitational (Sunday)

  • 9 Rounds
  • Time Control: G/3 minutes + 2-second increment
  • US Chess and FIDE Rated
  • Single Round Robin
  • Players: IM Levy Rozman, WFM Alexandra Botez, IM Sagar Shah, WGM Dina Belenkaya, Andrea Botez, IM Eric Rosen, IM Julien Song, GM Aman Hambleton, IM John Bartholomew, IM Danny Rensch
  • Creator Invitational Page Here

Links

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Topics: Daniel Naroditsky, Naroditsky Memorial 2026
Carlos Colodro is a Hispanic Philologist from Bolivia. He works as a freelance translator and writer since 2012. A lot of his work is done in chess-related texts, as the game is one of his biggest interests, along with literature and music.
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Video

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This entry into the 60 minutes series concentrates on the Modern variation of the Italian game where White opens the centre early : 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bc4 Nf6 4 d4 exd4 5 e5!. This line can be reached by various move orders, most frequently from the Scotch 3 d4 exd4 4 Bc4. It's a sharp variation and Grandmasters such as Evgeny Sveshnikov have used it frequently,with very good results. It's a perfect line for club players to adopt which is relatively easy to learn and which contains many traps. All the main responses are covered here, including 5...d5, 5...Ng4 and 5...Ne4 and the conclusion is that is is difficult for Black to equalize in a straightforward way. Problems are being posed, which over the board might prove tough to solve.