THE NEWEST VICTIM OF CHESS CORRUPTION IN PERU

Boris Ascue, three time convicted criminal and president of the Peruvian chess federation, has excluded their top player, Ingrid Aliaga, from Peru's national chess team. This after she laid a charge of sexual harassment against her coach, that had been hand-picked by Ascue.

Peru is one of the Latin American countries that have consistently produced the most chess talent. However, it is a sport governed by a federation wallowing in perpetual scandal. Boris Ascue, convicted of at least three crimes and banned for three years, continues to serve as president of the federation. This is thanks to protection received from the International Chess Federation (FIDE) and as a result being tolerated by the Peruvian Sports Institute (IPD). The Peruvian chess federation’s latest move as been to exclude top player Ingrid Aliaga from the national team for laying a charge of sexual harassment, with evidence, against coach that had been hired by the federation.

It seems to me what has happened here is that the action taken against Ingrid Aliaga was an attempt to silence a whistle blower before any media attention could be focussed on the deeper rot within the Peruvian chess federation.

"The sanction of banning Mr. Boris Ascue, imposed by the Superior Council of Sports Justice, is effective from the date of notification to the parties. As of that moment, the IPD does not recognize Mr. Ascue as president of the federation, nor is he eligible to hold the post of vice president." says Víktor Preciado Rojas, president of the IPD. However, he added that the IPD was not empowered in this case to appoint a management commission to administer the Sports Federation of Peruvian Chess (FDPA). That is because notices had been sent out calling for candidates for new federation elections literally days before the ban took effect. The net result is that Ascue still holds the position from which he has been banned till the new elections take place. Elections that surprisingly have failed to materialize.

That last statement clashes with common sense.

Ascue was sentenced to two prison terms of three years in 2005 (case 0860), for water pollution, and in 2007 (case 0043), for illegal appropriation. Another two years was added for culpable homicide (case 164-95). The judgment also cites the crime of aggravated usurpation (2003-0587), but does not mention a conviction. Although he did not actually serve time in prison because the sentences were less than four years, such convictions disqualify him from holding any public office, as stated in the first banning judgment by the Superior Council of Sports Justice, dated February 26, 2018.

However, Ascue held his position of chess federation president, with the protection of the IPD because his convictions were subject to appeal. His appeal was rejected by the second, higher, court on July 24.

The news was widely reported in the Peruvian media. The federation meeting to call elections that Preciado Rojas cites was held on August 8.

It is obvious that Ascue already knew of his immenent dismissal and banning. Nevertheless he called for elections and made decisions regarding the Chess Olympiad and the FIDE General Assembly, which will be held in Batumi (Georgia) later this month. None of these actions were opposed by the IPD. In fact, the official IPD website was still citing Ascue as president of the FDPA until last week Monday. Now his name has been replaced by a link to the ruling on his ban.

This is the third time in twelve years that FIDE has protected a president of the Peruvian Federation facing a ban from holding office. The previous occasions were in 2006 and 2010. All three instances were immediately prior to elections for the FIDE presidency. In both occasions the vote of the banned chess federation president was in for the former FIDE president Kirsán Iliumyínov.

In 2010, several Peruvian media accused Iliumyínov of blackmail. He threatened the Peruvian Olympic Committee that the national team would not play the Olympiad if the delegate in Congress was not his protege Milton Iturry. At the time Iturry had been removed from office and serving a ban issued by the Peruvian Government.

In 2006, FIDE - member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) - argued that it only followed the directives of National Olympic Committees, and not governments. But in 2010 the Peruvian Olympic Committee did not recognize the banned Iturry, and yet he attended the FIDE congress in an official capacity and his vote was accepted by FIDE.

This brings us back to the sexual harassment accusation that Ingrid Aliaga levied against coach Dorges Heredia, a Cuban hired by the FDPA. The alleged sexual harassment began last March during several federation organized training sessions.

The first reaction of federation president, Ascue, was to affirm that Aliaga was "discredited" to exert such accusation. This was to effectively try to silence anything that might bring attention to the corruption at the head of the federation.

But on March 15, two things happened: an eight-minute recording appeared in which Heredia clearly recognizes his "error" several times during a meeting with Aliaga and other players (one of the other players recorded the conversation without Heredia knowing).

In addition, her team mates testified before the FDPA in favour of Aliaga. With those testimonies and the recording, Ascue announced that he was withdrawing Heredia from conducting training sessions with the women’s team.

However, last Monday the FDPA published on its Facebook page an open letter from Heredia in which he denies the accusations against him. He attributes the accusation to indiscipline within the team. He also claims the support of the best player in Peru, Deysi Cori, whom he says he admires and appreciates. However, Cori has endorsed Aliaga's accusation repeatedly.

Aliaga, third in the national ranking (the Olympic team has five places) was champion of Peru in 2017. She has also qualified for the Women's World Championship, which will be played in Russia from 1 to 25 November 2018.

Ascue asserts that he has excluded her from the team because she has played few tournaments in 2018, and also finished sixth in the 2018 Peruvian Championship.

Aliaga has responded by stating that according to the Peruvian chess federation rules all international tournament entries are done by the National federation. Aliaga had sent the federation a list of tournaments that she wanted to contest. However, subsequent to her making the sexual harassment accusation, not one entry has been forwarded to a tournament organizer. As to her sixth place at the Peruvian Championship, that was during the time that the harassment was happening – severely affecting her psychological state.

Furthermore, Aliaga attests that Ascue is pushing to have her name removed from the World Championship entry lists. This to send a clear message to other victims that might be considering coming forward.

The Peruvian Julio Granda, 51, the current veteran world champion has also weighed in on the situation. And he has been a recurring victim of the FDPA's management disaster over the past several decades.

Granda stated that it was regrettable that, once again, the FDPA is in a both uncertain and harmful situation regarding chess in Peru. Firstly the federation has been allowed a person who has been banned to maintain the position of presidenct, effectively with the complicity of other, otherwise, competent bodies – each of which have chosen to ignore obvious things. In addition this negatively affects negatively the image of Peru on the eve of both a Chess Olympiad and FIDE elections. This lack of integrity puts a cloud over the good image of the entire country. This whole thing is positively shameful.

On Aliaga’s sexual harassment case Granda says that everything points at the very least to a tacit pact of silence between the federation and the accused, judging by the recording and testimony of the girls. It must also be noted that the exclusion of Aliaga from the team is a reprisal for breaking the “omerta”. In addition there are the thinly veiled threats against Cori for supporting Aliaga as a confirmation of an “omerta”. When Granda was mistreated years ago, the message was very clear: This is how we treat the number one, so the rest of you best keep quiet.

In addition publishing Heredia’s defence against the harassment charges, the FDPA also published on Monday a manifesto to boast of Ascue’s great achievements compared to previous presidents of Peruvian chess.

Peru, without Granda who had been sanctioned for speaking out against the federation, was tenth out of 170 countries in the last Chess Olympiad.