A well-known grandmaster has been accused by at least eight women — including several minors — of sexual misconduct, allegations that chess officials were reportedly aware of for years.
Alejandro Ramirez resigned from the St. Louis Chess Club on Monday, two days after a blitz of allegations came out against him, the Wall Street Journal reported.
His attorney called the accusations a “negative distraction” and pointed the finger at social media, claiming it had suppressed his client’s right to due process.
“Superimposing today’s mores on erroneous recitals of acts of yesteryear is a recipe for disaster for both the accused and the accuser,” Ramirez’s lawyer Albert Watkins wrote.
The onslaught of accusations against Ramirez came only after Jennifer Shahade said last month on social media she had been attacked, according to a new report.
Previously, she had reported two alleged attacks by Ramirez to the US Chess Federation and influential St. Louis Chess Club, both of which initially failed to investigate the claims, the Wall Street Journal said Tuesday.
After Shahade, 42, took to Twitter on Feb. 15 to detail the alleged abuse, she received messages from ten other women that claimed they had also been attacked or harassed by the 34-year-old Costa Rican, according to the report.
Time’s up. pic.twitter.com/ItOv73lTX7
— Jennifer Shahade (@JenShahade) February 15, 2023
Eight women interviewed by the newspaper said the grandmaster had used his status to make unwanted advances towards them since 2011, when he began representing the US in international play.
Three of the women said they were younger than 18 at the time of the incidents, including one accuser who said she was just 16 when Ramirez gave her vodka before demanding oral sex, according to the report.
“There was talk of him being a bit sleazy, messaging very young girls,” the accuser told the paper, adding she warned other young female players to avoid him because he was “a slimy person.”
Ramirez has also reportedly been fired from his job coaching St. Louis University’s chess team and taken off the Athletes’ Commission of FIDE, chess’s world governing body.
The US Chess Federation and the powerful St. Louis Chess Club had known about Ramirez’s alleged misconduct for years, according to the report.
A lawyer for the club wrote in 2021 that it was aware of Shahade’s allegation a year prior. Documents reviewed by The Journal also showed that the entities had been informed of Ramirez’s alleged abuse of a 15-year-old in 2020 — before he was selected to coach the US women’s team at the 2022 World Chess Olympiad.
Another female player said that she was warned in 2016 by chess club officials not to be alone with Ramirez after a party. The woman was underage at the time of the cautioning, according to the report.
The mother of another player told The Journal she had alerted a top US Chess official about Ramirez’s predatory behavior in 2017 — the same year when she heard St. Louis Chess Club officials joke about the grandmaster’s inappropriate penchant for young women.
Shahade said she made her accusations public in the hopes that it would prevent him from abusing other women and girls.
“I was concerned that there was a clear and present danger that he could have interactions with girls and women,” she told the paper.
Shahade reportedly recalled two unwanted encounters with Ramirez — most recently a forcible kiss at a gathering in a large house where she was “slammed” against a wall.
St. Louis Chess Club did not respond to a request for comment from the outlet when asked about its knowledge of accusations of impropriety against the club’s former highly-paid employee.
The federation said on Feb. 15 it had opened an investigation following “serious allegations about a member of the chess community,” without naming Ramirez.
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