Accusation against Alejandro Ramirez

[Mick Norris]

Good

[Roger Lancaster]

Chess.com representatives questioning why give the ECF £500k:

https://x.com/leonwatson/status/1691789 ... l4oOdx7yVw

Never heard of Leon Watson but he's the PR guy at Chess.com. Only now has Chess.com's Danny Rench told the Wall Street Journal that his company will no longer provide support for the influential St. Louis Chess Club. By comparison, rival platform Lichess - presumably unencumbered by financial considerations - had already decided a week earlier to no longer with co-operate with either St Louis or the United States Chess Federation due to serious concerns about their accountability. Part of a PR job, of course, is to divert attention away from inconvenient facts.

[Roger de Coverly]

Never heard of Leon Watson but he's the PR guy at Chess.com.

He has been quite active as a player in the London League
http://www.ecfrating.org.uk/v2/new/play ... de=295838H

Also he was a journalist writing in the Daily Telegraph not specifically on chess, but his byline often featured in the stories about chess.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/authors/l/l ... on-watson/

As a player himself, his material was always technically accurate

[Roger Lancaster]

Thanks for clarification, Roger, as I wasn't sure (he has had few games since 2019) whether it was the same guy. But that makes sense - as a journalist he'd have the type of background Chess.com would seek to handle its PR.

[Matt Bridgeman]

On a positive note there are trusts such as this one which might really help improve safe guarding within the ECF. I’m sure they wouldn’t care very much about the definition of ‘sport’ either as it’s about protecting kids; http://www.offsidetrust.com/who-we-are

On a negative note ECF, oh my god, what did you NOT do in 2018?

[Paul Cooksey]

On a negative note ECF, oh my god, what did you NOT do in 2018?

Matt - I do not understand the reference to 2018. Can you clarify?

I was about to praise the ECF for its response, but don't want to make a fool of myself if I have missed something important.

[Matt Bridgeman]

On a negative note ECF, oh my god, what did you NOT do in 2018?

Matt - I do not understand the reference to 2018. Can you clarify?

I was about to praise the ECF for its response, but don't want to make a fool of myself if I have missed something important.

No, I’ll hold back but if you think about things that might have happened in 2018 from an English chess perspective there might be something that would suggest itself. I would think there’s grounds there to at least explore criminal offences with appropriately trained CID officers, and/or failing that a very robust internal investigation into what may or may not not happen in terms of burying/not acting on serious sexual misconduct allegations. People are pursuing this - not me I would add - and on the face of it it’s bad and should be exposed to the light.

[Roger de Coverly]

No, I’ll hold back but if you think about things that might have happened in 2018 from an English chess perspective there might be something that would suggest itself.

If there was something, it passed by unnoticed by this forum. There was a minor row about appointing a man as Director of Women's Chess. This was fuelled in part by someone who didn't appreciate that the ECF wasn't made of money and that any grant would come from the pockets of those who financed the ECF. That their representatives declined the request isn't surprising in that context.

[Matt Bridgeman]

No, I’ll hold back but if you think about things that might have happened in 2018 from an English chess perspective there might be something that would suggest itself.

If there was something, it passed by unnoticed by this forum. There was a minor row about appointing a man as Director of Women's Chess. This was fuelled in part by someone who didn't appreciate that the ECF wasn't made of money and that any grant would come from the pockets of those who financed the ECF. That their representatives declined the request isn't surprising in that context.

Oh my god! lol Okay, hypothetically if someone was was in the running for a big appointment, with an important organisation, generating a lot of publicity, and as a result of this a number of woman/proxies then presented allegations with a sexual misconduct element to say their Federation, and the reports were suppressed, held pending, not acted on, forgotten about, ignored, etc. What would we make of that?

[Roger de Coverly]

What would we make of that?

A row in 2019 over the appointment of a "Development Officer" started in 2018.

https://www.englishchess.org.uk/wp-cont ... plaint.pdf

[Matt Bridgeman]

What would we make of that?

The other row in 2018 was over the appointment of a "Development Officer".

https://www.englishchess.org.uk/wp-cont ... plaint.pdf

Not an ECF appointment but still within their jurisdiction to take action. Think about Sabrina’s story one, but now we’ve moved in time from 1998 to 2018.

[Mick Norris]

FIDE Presidential Election 2018 presumably

Looking at the detailed document linked to above about Tim Wall's official complaint, are we sure there have been other official complaints?

[Matt Bridgeman]

FIDE Presidential Election 2018 presumably

Looking at the detailed document linked to above about Tim Wall's official complaint, are we sure there have been other official complaints?

I’ve got three questions - how many directors from the ECF were aware of allegations and complaints made to the ECF during the 2018 FIDE election? How many ECF directors took part in discussions which decided not to publicise the allegations during the election campaign? What an earth happened next?

[Mick Norris]

Are you certain there was an official complaint?

I'm not saying there wasn't, and I'm certainly not saying it would be an easy thing to do nor blaming anyone who didn't, but I'd like to know as this is I think the gist of Nick's questions about whether there are/were complaints

[Matt Bridgeman]

Are you certain there was an official complaint?

I'm not saying there wasn't, and I'm certainly not saying it would be an easy thing to do nor blaming anyone who didn't, but I'd like to know as this is I think the gist of Nick's questions about whether there are/were complaints

Without it being a total blame game, maybe that’s part of it. If you’re an ECF official going forward - whether it’s official shouldn’t be the only test. Perhaps there should be a duty of care/being mindful of safeguarding, and to report things to the correct channels.