‘Queen’s Gambit’ Defamation Suit Over ‘Grossly Sexist’ Line About Chess Champ Is Settled Out of Court
defamation suit facing Netflix’s hit limited series “The Queen’s Gambit” has ended in a draw between the streamer and Georgian chess grandmaster Nona Gaprindashvili, who had contention with a line about her in the show that she deemed “grossly sexist and belittling.”The two parties settled out of court, they informed the judge in a filing on Monday. The stalemate comes after a January ruling that Gaprindashvili’s claim had merit, with a judge rejecting Netflix’s motion to dismiss on the grounds that works of fiction are immune from defamation lawsuits if they disparage real people.In an episode of the Emmy-winning chess thriller, a fictional prodigy portrayed by Anya Taylor-Joy is distinguished as the first woman to play against men, with a commentator saying that Gaprindashvili is the “female world champion [who] has never faced men.” The lawsuit called the comment “manifestly false, as well as being grossly sexist and belittling.”“By 1968, the year in which this episode is set, she had competed against at least 59 male chess players (28 of them simultaneously in one game), including at least ten Grandmasters of that time,” Gaprindashvili’s attorneys argued.In January, Netflix conceded the line is inaccurate, but contended that the “Line is fiction and thus not understood to be conveying a fact.