The Queen’s Gambit? Why chess icon Nona Gaprindashvili sued Netflix

Netflix is in trouble as the Georgian chess icon Nona Gaprindashvili has filed a defamation suit against the streaming service, saying her portrayal in the hit series ‘The Queen’s Gambit’ was incorrect. The case is in reference to the show’s final episode which says Gaprindashvili, now 80, had never played competitive chess with men.

The document says she had played against at least 59 male players in 1968, the year in which the episode is set.

Netflix responded saying the claim had “no merit”.

The company added that it had “only the utmost respect” for Gaprindashvili and her “illustrious career” but that it would “vigorously defend the case”.

The series is inspired by 1983 novel by Walter Tevis and revolves around a fictional chess player called Beth Harmon, played by Anya Taylor-Joy. 

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A commentator mentions Gaprindashvili when describing Harmon in the final episode and says, “The only unusual thing about her, really, is her sex. And even that’s not unique in Russia. There’s Nona Gaprindashvili, but she’s the female world champion and has never faced men.”

Th case filed in the Federal District Court in Los Angeles said, “Netflix brazenly and deliberately lied about Gaprindashvili’s achievements for the cheap and cynical purpose of ‘heightening the drama’ by making it appear that its fictional hero had managed to do what no other woman, including Gaprindashvili, had done.”

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It added, “The allegation that Gaprindashvili ‘has never faced men’ is manifestly false, as well as being grossly sexist and belittling.”

“Born in 1941 in the Georgian town of Zugdidi, Gaprindashvili began playing chess at the age of 13, became female World Championship at 20 and was the first woman to be awarded the title of grandmaster,” according to the lawsuit.

“By 1968, Gaprindashvili “had competed against at least 59 male chess players (28 of them simultaneously in one game), including at least 10 Grandmasters of that time,” further said the lawsuit. 

Gaprindashvili is seeking $5m in compensation and the removal of the statement that she had never played against men.