Netflix will have to face ‘Queens Gambit’ defamation suit, judge rules

Netflix is learning that careless dialogue in its fictional shows can have serious implications. Its bid to get a recent defamation suit dismissed has been rejected, meaning it will have to face the plaintiff — Georgian chess legend Nona Gaprindashvili — in court. 

In September, Gaprindashvili filed a suit against the streaming giant, accusing the company of defamation and “false light invasion of privacy.” As the world’s first female grandmaster, Gaprindashvili was mentioned in Netflix’s series The Queen’s Gambit — a period drama about a chess prodigy. 

In one scene during a chess match, a radio commentator says in passing “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.”

According to the suit, not only is the allegation that Gaprindashvili hadn’t faced men at that time “manifestly false,” it’s also “grossly sexist and belittling.” It states that “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.”

The …read more