GM Daniel Naroditskywas born, raised, and resides in the San Francisco Bay Area. He learned chess at six years old from his father and brother, and was hooked from day one! His greatest accomplishment in his early chess career was to win the gold medal in the 2007 under 12 World Youth Chess Championship in Antalya, Turkey. Four years later, he became an IM, and in 2013, at the Benasque Open in Spain, He earned his final GM norm and pushed his rating over 2500, fulfilling his dream. He's am currently a full-time student at Stanford University, but still ambitious. He also very much enjoys writing and continues to write an instructional column here on Chess.com when his time permits!