Edward Winter
Chess figures whose suicide has been documented include:
Walter Grimshaw (1832-90);
Nicolai Gedalia (1857-80) C.N. 3630;
Curt von Bardeleben (1861-1924);
Leopold Löwy (1871-1940) C.N. 11527;
Norman Willem van Lennep (1872-97);
Rudolf Swiderski (1878-1909);
Howard Dolde (1884-1943) C.N. 12092;
J. Cukierman (1899-1940).
For these and other cases, see too the Factfinder, where a number of alleged instances are also recorded. Some particulars will be added here in due course.
A clear-cut false claim, by Assiac (Heinrich Fraenkel), is related in The Death of F.D. Yates. On page 24 of the January 1963 BCM D.J. Morgan wrote:
On 22 November 2025 an article by Raymond Keene entitled ‘Self-mate: suicide in chess’ featured Daniel Naroditsky:
‘Accident’ was the manner of death specified in the report dated 7 January 2026 by the North Carolina medical examiner, Dr James R. Lozano.
A Times tweet posted by Raymond Keene on 16 January 2013:
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