A former Soviet chess master is suing Netflix over a line in last year’s popular series “The Queen’s Gambit,” in which fictional characters claimed that this real-life female chess master “never faced men.”
The $5 million defamation lawsuit was filed in the Central District of California on Thursday by Nona Gaprindashvili, chess master from Georgia who became a champion under the former Soviet Union.
Gaprindashvili;80; alleges that the main character in “Queen’s Gambit” — Elizabeth Harmon, played by Anya Taylor-Joy — is a rough approximation of her and that the line referring to Gaprindashvili’s real-life success is “manifestly false, as well as being grossly sexist and belittling.”
The line in question comes in the series finale when one character contemplates how Harmon has just defeated a male chess master in Moscow:
“Elizabeth Harmon’s not at all an important player by their standards. 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. My guess is Laev was expecting an easy win; not at all the 27-move thrashing Beth Harmon just gave him.”
Gaprindashvili’s lawsuit says the fictional line about an actual person is demonstrably false.
The line in question comes in the series finale when one character contemplates how Harmon has just defeated a male chess master in Moscow:
“Elizabeth Harmon’s not at all an important player by their standards. 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. My guess is Laev was expecting an easy win, and not at all the 27-move thrashing Beth Harmon just gave him.”
Gaprindashvili’s lawsuit says the fictional line about an actual person is demonstrably false.
Based on Walter Tevi’s 1983 novel, The Queen’s Gambit proved a global sensation with its October 23 launch and goes into this weekend’s Emmys looking like a favorite; having won a leading nine trophies at the Creative Emmys last weekend. One of my Top 10 shows of last year; follows Beth Harmon (Taylor-Joy), a young girl abandoned to a Kentucky orphanage in the late 1950s; who discovers an astonishing talent for chess; while battling addiction and the struggles that come with the true gift of genius.