Georgian chess grandmaster sues Netflix over 'The Queen's Gambit'

Chess grandmaster Nona Gaprindashivili has filed a lawsuit against Netflix, claiming that its lines about her in the US drama The Queen's Gambit contained factual errors.

The Queen's Gambit is based on a 1983 novel and depicts the journey of a fictional female chess player, Beth Harmon, to become a grandmaster. In the show, Harmon grows up in an orphanage and eventually travels to Moscow during the Cold War in the 1960s to defeat the best male chess players in Russia.

According to entertainment media Hollywood Reporter, Gapridashvili filed a lawsuit against Netflix for defamation on September 16, 2021, demanding at least $5 million in actual damages plus more punitive damages.

It all started in the last episode of the show. In the show, a chess commentator said when explaining the victory of the heroine Harmon: "The only unusual thing about her is her gender. Although this is not unique in the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union had Nona Gapridashvili, but she was the female world champion and had never faced a male (chess player)."

Gapridashvili said the comment damaged her reputation. "The characterization that Gapridashvili has 'never faced off against a male (chess player)' is patently false and grossly sexist and derogatory," the lawsuit said.

Gapridashvili said that by 1968, the year the episode takes place, she had played against at least 59 male chess players, including 10 grandmasters. “Netflix blatantly and intentionally lied about Gapridashvili’s accomplishments in order to heighten the ‘dramatic effect’ of having its fictional protagonist succeed at something that no other woman, including Gapridashvili, had ever accomplished,” the lawsuit states.

A Netflix spokesperson responded to the lawsuit, saying: "Netflix has nothing but the highest respect for Ms. Gapridashvili and her illustrious career, but we believe these claims are without merit and will vigorously defend this case."

In addition to more than $5 million in damages, Gapridashvili is asking the court for an order requiring Netflix to remove the line that states she never played against a male chess player.