One of the world’s elite chess grandmasters, Andre Diamant, has been accused by police of paying his 6-year-old son to drink shots of wine with him here. The child became violently nauseated, according to court documents that say Diamant also had given him beer in the past.
Diamant, 25, of Shrewsbury, was charged Monday with a misdemeanor count of child endangerment.
Originally from Brazil, Diamant is a two-time national collegiate chess champion and member of the top-ranked Webster University chess team. He attends Webster on a student visa, majoring in international studies and Spanish, the school said.
According to a 2012 article in the Webster University Journal, Diamant has played in chess tournaments around the globe, and is Brazil’s youngest grandmaster. There are about 1,500 grandmasters worldwide, as designated by the World Chess Federation.
His son told police that his father in August gave him two $20 bills to drink “bad tea” and “good tea” from a shot glass, court records say. The “bad tea” made the boy vomit. The “good tea” did not.
The boy identified a bottle of sake, Japanese rice wine, as the “tea” he drank. Shrewsbury Police Lt. Brian Catlett said Diamant was celebrating a chess tournament victory and told police that he wanted his son to drink with him because “alcohol played a part” in his religious and cultural traditions in Brazil.
“This guy was in a celebratory mood,” Catlett said. After police were called, Diamant was “very apologetic and upset about it.”
Catlett said Diamant fled home to Brazil shortly after he was arrested and released in August. Catlett said police have been unable to reach him since the charges were filed Monday.
Diamant’s wife (the child’s mother) Mara Kamphorst, 25, sought an order of protection Aug. 13. It says, in part: “Father forced child to drink alcoholic beverages with him. Mother tried to stop him but he told child he would give him $20 for each shot of saki (sic). Child didn’t want to but father persisted and made him. Child got sick and threw up violently. Mother asked friend to call police. Father has a serious drinking problem and has gotten no treatment and is in denial and used poor judgment in endangering our child even when I screamed at him to stop. This has happened in the past but only with sips of beer.”
Kamphorst declined to comment Friday.
A judge barred Diamant from entering the child’s home or school, or coming within 500 feet of him, and set child support at $850 a month.