Breaking the Silence

The USCF Delegates Assembly passed motions denouncing Ramirez and praising Shahade. What they failed to do was accept responsibility for inaction and perpetuating dangerous conditions for women and girls. Instead, they have enacted safe sport training (at the expense of the individual TD, rather than at USCF) and completely glossed over the issue. I for one say bravo to Lichess for acting on their ethics and morals in the face of a monopoly. I stand with Lichess and with those who struggle to find safe spaces in the chess world.

I like the way Lichess approached this issue. Although the US Chess Federation is a huge chess organization, Lichess instead chose to do the right thing. I feel that the US Chess Federation should take far stronger action against the accused. The behavior of the accused was extremely unacceptable. Also, the employees of the US Chess Federation should be trained to not joke about complaints given from anyone.

Lichess doing what it is best at doing: virtue signalling!

I’m slightly confused - were any of the allegations actually proven through a court of law? If they weren’t how come the players lost their memberships?

Court of public opinion xD

Do I understand it right that Lichess supports the "guilty until proven innocent" line of thinking when it come to SA allegations?

I think there are 100% situations where the criminal law is woefully insufficient and the organization needs to take independent responsibility. A college sports team is one of the most obvious examples, where the athletes are virtual gods on campus and peer pressures enormous. An officially sanctioned team doctor is another clear example. I could see situations like that arising in chess. A coach giving lessons on club property would be another clear case, where the organization might become privy to facts not resulting in police allegations. Maybe the St. Louis incidents were of this nature, havent read up on those. But does this second wave of incidents really raise these kinds of facts? One of the alleged incidents did not even occur in the venue. Or is this more like saying *any* organization is *always* responsble for conducting its own investigation or acting on allegations alone? I feel like these days aweful criminal conduct brings out an army of crusaders, and there isn't always careful thought given to whether the complaints really make sense when directed to an organization with little or nothing to do with what may have happened. The criminal law exists for a reason, and while not always sufficient, it isn't always the independent responsibility of an organization to do more either.

@LFC2020 said in #17:
> Court of public opinion xD

Unless it’s a jury that’s not how the law works lol.

This is very sad to hear. Before I read this article I had no idea about this. Thank you Lichess for spreading awareness.