A widely known grandmaster has been accused by no less than eight girls — together with a number of minors — of sexual misconduct, allegations that chess officers had been reportedly conscious of for years.
Alejandro Ramirez resigned from the St. Louis Chess Membership on Monday, two days after a blitz of allegations got here out in opposition to him, the Wall Road Journal reported.
His lawyer referred to as the accusations a “damaging distraction” and pointed the finger at social media, claiming it had suppressed his shopper’s proper to due course of.
“Superimposing at present’s mores on inaccurate recitals of acts of yesteryear is a recipe for catastrophe for each the accused and the accuser,” Ramirez’s lawyer Albert Watkins wrote.
The onslaught of accusations in opposition to Ramirez got here solely after Jennifer Shahade mentioned final month on-line that she had been attacked, based on a brand new report.
Beforehand, she had reported two alleged assaults by Ramirez to the US Chess Federation and influential St. Louis Chess Membership, each of which initially failed to research the claims, the Wall Road Journal mentioned Tuesday.
After Shahade, 42, took to Twitter on Feb. 15 to element the alleged abuse, she acquired messages from ten different girls that claimed they’d additionally been attacked or harassed by the 34-year-old Costa Rican, based on the report.
Eight girls interviewed by the newspaper mentioned the grandmaster had used his standing to make undesirable advances in the direction of them since 2011, when he started representing the US in worldwide play.
Three of the ladies mentioned they had been youthful than 18 on the time of the incidents, together with one accuser who mentioned she was simply 16 when Ramirez gave her vodka earlier than demanding oral intercourse, based on the report.
“There was discuss of him being a bit sleazy, messaging very younger ladies,” the accuser instructed the paper, including she warned different younger feminine gamers to keep away from him as a result of he was “a slimy individual.”
Ramirez has additionally reportedly been fired from his job teaching St. Louis College’s chess group and brought off the Athletes’ Fee of FIDE, chess’s world governing physique.
The US Chess Federation and the highly effective St. Louis Chess Membership had recognized about Ramirez’s alleged misconduct for years, based on the report.
A lawyer for the membership wrote in 2021 that it was conscious of Shahade’s allegation a 12 months prior. Paperwork reviewed by The Journal additionally confirmed that the entities had been knowledgeable of Ramirez’s alleged abuse of a 15-year-old in 2020 — earlier than he was chosen to educate the US girls’s group on the 2022 World Chess Olympiad.
One other feminine participant mentioned that she was warned in 2016 by chess membership officers to not be alone with Ramirez after a celebration. The girl was underage on the time of the cautioning, based on the report.
The mom of one other participant instructed The Journal she had alerted a prime US Chess official about Ramirez’s predatory habits in 2017 — the identical 12 months when she heard St. Louis Chess Membership officers joke concerning the grandmaster’s inappropriate penchant for younger girls.
Shahade mentioned she made her accusations public within the hopes that it could forestall him from abusing different girls and ladies.
“I used to be involved that there was a transparent and current hazard that he may have interactions with women and girls,” she instructed the paper.
Shahade reportedly recalled two undesirable encounters with Ramirez — most not too long ago a forcible kiss at a gathering in a big home the place she was “slammed” in opposition to a wall.
St. Louis Chess Membership didn’t reply to a request for remark from the outlet when requested about its data of accusations of impropriety in opposition to the membership’s former highly-paid worker.
The federation mentioned on Feb. 15 it had opened an investigation following “critical allegations a couple of member of the chess neighborhood,” with out naming Ramirez.
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