Netflix and Georgian chess champion Nona Gaprindashvili, who claimed she was defamed in an episode of Queen’s Gambit, have struck a settlement to resolve their legal fight.
The parties informed the court on Monday that they had reached an agreement in the lawsuit involving the Emmy-winning series based on the same-titled novel from 1983.
In Queen’s Gambit, Anya Taylor-Joy portrays Beth Harmon, an orphan who ascended to the top of the chess world in the 1960s by defeating Russia’s finest players in a prestigious tournament.
Gaprindashvili, 80, filed a $5 million defamation lawsuit against the streaming behemoth in response to a commentator’s remark that she “never faced men.”
The critic states, with reference to the character Harmon, that her sex is the only peculiar aspect of her. And even this is not exceptional in Russia. Nona Gaprindashvili is the female world champion, but she has never competed against men.’
In the case, the chess legend contended that by 1968, when the episode is set, she had already battled against 59 men, defeating 28 of them concurrently.
Nona Gaprindashvili, age 80, may suing Netflix for defamation after the show wrongly stated the chess champion was Russian and had never competed against men.
Gaprindashvili had faced at least 10 Grandmasters of the era, including Dragolyub Velimirovich, Svetozar Gligoric, Paul Keres, Bojan Kurajica, Boris Spassky, Viswanathan Anand, and Mikhail Tal. The lawsuit states that the latter three were also world champions during their careers.
The lawsuit also claims that Taylor’s persona is a fictionalized and Americanized version of a real-life female Georgian prodigy. It also notes that the broadcast incorrectly identified her country of origin as Russia, rather than Georgia.
Netflix lied about Gaprindashvili’s accomplishments for the cheap and cynical goal of “heightening the drama” by making it appear that its fictitious heroine had accomplished what no other woman, including Gaprindashvili, had done.
Thus, in a story intended to empower women by depicting a young woman battling with men at the highest levels of world chess, Netflix degraded the one real woman trailblazer who faced and defeated men on the international arena during the same era.
Gaprindashvili asserts that she contacted Netflix following the show’s debut and mentioned that “many news sites and various individual Internet users commented on the inaccuracy of the phrase.”
She stated that she requested a retraction and apology, but her complaint was ignored by the corporation as ‘innocuous.’
Gaprindashvili claims Beth Harmon from The Queen’s Gambit is an Americanized and fictitious version of her real-life counterpart.
Gaprindashvili’s attorneys asserted that the error was broadcast to “millions of viewers worldwide” and damaged her “personal and professional reputation.”
According to legal documents obtained by the Press Association, Netflix maintained that “no reasonable viewer would have understood the line to convey a statement of truth” because the series was promoted as “an wholly fictional work.”
According to the documents, the corporation also argued that its viewers required “knowledge of competitive Soviet chess in the 1960s” to comprehend the allegedly defamatory remark.
However, the Central District Court of California denied a move to dismiss an American defamation claim.
The judge concluded in January that the streaming behemoth can be sued for defamation, stating that ‘the fact that the series was a fictional work does not exempt Netflix from liability for defamation if all other components of defamation are present,’ according to court records.
Additionally, the judge remarked that there was no evidence of cases ‘excluding defamation claims for the portrayal of real persons in otherwise fictional works.’
Netflix filed an appeal with the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Before the matter was resolved, the court decided to review it.
Gaprindashvili’s representative, Alexander Rufus-Isaacs, told The Hollywood Reporter that he was “pleased that the problem has been handled.”
Netflix has been approached by MailOnline for comment.
After its release on October 23, 2020, The Queen’s Gambit became one of Netflix’s most popular shows and established a record for the most viewers ever for a scripted limited-run series in the first 28 days.
Last year, it won eleven Emmys, including one for Anya Taylor-Joy in the category of Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie.
Taylor-Joy portrays a fictional figure named Beth Harmon, a child prodigy who grows up in a 1950s Kentucky orphanage and goes on to become a chess superstar.
Based on a story from 1983, the character defeats even the most impressive Russian players of the time.
Georgian-born Gaprindashvili is a pioneer of women’s chess and the first female to obtain the title of International Chess Grandmaster.
Throughout her career, she won numerous championships and defeated some of the world’s top male chess players.
Gaprindashvili is a Georgian Soviet pioneer of women’s chess and the first woman to obtain the title of International Chess Grandmaster (Pictured: Nona Gaprindashvili competing against 28 men simultaneously in Dorset, United Kingdom, January 1965)
Nona Gaprindashvili in action at the Ladies International Chess Tournament in Romford, Essex.
According to Gaprindashvili’s lawsuit, the line undermines her hard-won professional reputation.
Similar to Taylor-persona, Joy’s she began playing chess at the age of 13, and at the age of 20, she became the female World Champion.
Gaprindashvili won a total of 25 medals, including eleven gold team medals and nine gold individual medals.
The lawsuit asserts, “She suffered substantial discrimination due to the fact that she was a woman, and frequently the only woman, competing against men.”
Gaprindashvili’s ‘lifelong career has been in the world of competitive chess, where she has remained an active leader, role model, and contender, and where she claims that the statement strikes at the heart of her hard-won status in her field.’
The international legend, who resides in the capital of Georgia, continues to play chess and has won multiple senior world championships.
Gaprindashvili’s professional name and brand were closely linked to her gutsy efforts to meet and defeat esteemed male opponents when chess was predominately a man’s game.