• contact@thenewscastle.com
  • The Castle, Palace Green, Durham DH1 3RW, United Kingdom

Chess Participant Jennifer Shahade Accuses Grandmaster of Abuse

Posted on: February 17, 2023, 05:36h. 

Final up to date on: February 17, 2023, 05:36h.

Ladies’s chess champion {and professional} poker participant Jennifer Shahade has claimed she was sexually assaulted by Grandmaster Alejandro Ramirez.

Jennifer Shahade, Alejandro Ramirez
Jennifer Shahade presenting At this time in Chess in 2018. She claims Ramirez is beneath investigation for sexual misconduct in opposition to a number of girls. (Picture: At this time in Chess/YouTube)

Shahade, 42, tweeted Wednesday that she had chosen to talk out in opposition to Ramirez, 36, after studying of alleged sexual misconduct in opposition to a number of different girls, together with a minor. Later, she wrote that 4 further girls had approached her about alleged misconduct by Ramirez after seeing her unique tweet.

Shahade stated that Ramirez, who’s the crew coach of Saint Louis College’s chess crew, assaulted her twice a decade in the past.

‘Underage Temptress’

“I’d moved on till the previous couple years, when a number of girls, impartial of one another and with no information of my very own expertise, approached me with their very own tales of alleged abuse,” she wrote in her tweet.

These accounts had been from a lot youthful alleged victims. I noticed alarming proof, together with texts that admitted abuse of a minor whereas he was teaching her, in addition to a textual content to an alleged sufferer about being an underage ‘temptress,’” she added.

Shahade stated she formally reported Ramirez to US Chess and the Saint Louis Chess Membership within the fall of 2022. Each are pursuing investigations.

Shahade is a two-time US Ladies’s Champion and has the FIDE title of Girl Grandmaster. As a poker participant, notable wins embrace the primary TonyBet Open Face Chinese language Poker Reside World Championship Excessive Curler Occasion, which noticed her take dwelling €100,000. She is a former model ambassador for PokerStars and is the host of award-winning poker podcast, The Grid.

Younger Grandmaster

Costa-Rican American Ramirez turned a Grandmaster on the age of simply 15, the primary Central American to realize the title. In November 2022, he tied for first place on the 2022 US Masters.

As Saint Louis College coach, he has led the crew to quite a few titles, together with the 2021 FIDE World College Cup Fast Championship and the 2022 Collegiate Chess Nationwide Championship.

“Though I can’t touch upon the specifics of Ms. Shahade’s assertions attributable to pending investigations by the US Chess Federation and the St. Louis Chess Membership, I perceive the priority raised by the allegations levied in opposition to me,” Ramirez advised Chess.com. “I’m absolutely cooperating with each inquiries and sit up for the chance to reply to these fees and share my facet of the story.”

The US Chess Federation stated it was conscious of “critical allegations a few member of the chess neighborhood,” including that it was “dedicated to due course of and for coping with delicate issues in a respectful and confidential method.”