Female chess master’s $5M defamation suit against ‘Queen’s Gambit’ upheld

nypost.com:

Netflix.On Thursday, a California judge upheld a $5 million defamation lawsuit filed by Soviet-era chess grandmaster Nona Gaprindashvili against the streaming service for her allegedly “grossly sexist and belittling” and “false” depiction in “The Queen’s Gambit,” Variety reported.Gaprindashvili, an 80-year-old Georgia native and the game’s first female grandmaster, is referenced in the show as not having ever played a male opponent — whereas she actually faced upwards of 59 men by the show’s 1968 setting.

She even played against 28 men at once.“There’s Nona Gaprindashvili, but she’s the female world champion and has never faced men,” an announcer says in the series as Anya Taylor Joy’s character Beth Harmon squares off against Vasily Borgov (Marcin Dorociński) in the finale of the gender barrier-busting show’s sole season.“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,” her suit against the media titan accused.

Despite an abundance of photo evidence, Netflix was reported to have used two chess experts to get Gaprindashvili’s story right and did not mean to “disparage” with the portrayal.

Netflix also tried to have the lawsuit tossed by arguing “The Queen’s Gambit” is a work of fiction and is protected by the First Amendment, according to Variety.Previously, the company claimed that the grandmaster’s gripe “has no merit” and they would “vigorously defend the case.” But Netflix’s argument wasn’t enough for the courts.