Chess queen lawsuit: Nona Gaprindashvili accuses Netflix of libel

The famous Georgian chess player Nona Gaprindashvili has filed a lawsuit in a California state court, reports Insider. The former world champion accuses Netflix of defamation over a line in the TV series The Queen's Gambit. This remark sounds in the final episode, in an episode that takes place at chess competitions in the USSR: "There is also Nona Gaprindashvili, but she is the world champion among women and has never played against men" (There's Nona Gaprindashvili, but she's the female world champion and has never faced men).

According to Gaprindashvili in his lawsuit, the creators of the series resorted to deliberate lies and minimized their achievements so that the career of the genius chess player Beth Harmon, the heroine of The Queen's Gambit, looked more impressive. “Gaprindashvili is a pioneer in the field of women's chess and is very loved in her native country, Georgia”, - the lawsuit says. - Throughout her distinguished career, she won numerous championships, defeated some of the world's strongest male chess players and became the first woman in history to receive the title of International Male Grandmaster (...) at least 59 men (28 took part in the simultaneous game), among whom there were at least ten grandmasters, including Boris Spassky, Viswanathan Anand and Mikhail Tal, who achieved the title of world champion".

The full text of the claim can be read on the website.

The Queen's Gambit has been nominated for 18 Emmy Awards, with an awards ceremony taking place this Sunday, September 19th.