Soviet chess legend sues Netflix over Queen’s Gambit in US$5 million lawsuit
- The world’s first woman grandmaster, Nona Gaprindashvili, was said in the hit series to have ‘never faced men’, which her lawyers say is false and sexist
- The chess icon had played against at least 59 male players by 1968, the year in which the episode was set, according to the legal papers
The world’s first female chess grandmaster, Nona Gaprindashvili, has filed a US$5 million defamation lawsuit against Netflix over a line in its The Queen’s Gambit series which her lawyers say is false and sexist.
The 80-year old Soviet chess icon, a hero in her native South Caucasus Republic of Georgia, was described in the show’s last episode as a female champion who had “never faced men”.
The suit filed on Gaprindashvili’s behalf in a US federal court in Los Angeles said the reference to her was “degrading her accomplishments before an audience of many millions”.
The legal papers seen by Reuters said the five-times world champion was “the first woman in history to achieve the status of international chess grandmaster among men”.
She had played against at least 59 male chess players by 1968, the year in which the episode was set, according to the legal papers.
Netflix did not immediately reply to a request for comment but was cited in US media as saying it would “vigorously defend the case”.