Netflix will be forced to undergo a legal battle against grandmaster Nona Gaprindashvili over a line in The Queen’s Gambit after a judge refused to dismiss the defamation case.
According to reports, US District Judge Virginia Philips denied the motion to dismiss the lawsuit, stating “the fact that the Series was a fictional work does not insulate Netflix from liability for defamation if all the elements of defamation are otherwise present.” The District Judge also added that “at the very least, the line is dismissive of the accomplishments central to Plaintiff’s reputation,” and that Netflix’s initial filing to dismiss the case “demonstrates knowledge of the truth in its choice to deviate from the text of the Novel, which states that Plaintiff had faced the male Russian Grandmasters ‘many times before.’”
Gaprindashvili filed a $5 million USD defamation lawsuit against Netflix over a line she deemed “sexist.” During the series finale, a commentator can be heard stating, “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.” Gaprindashvili and her legal team begged to differ, however, noting in the 25-page lawsuit that she has “won many championships, beat some of the best male chess players in the world, and was the first woman in history to achieve the status of international chess grandmaster among men,” and that the line said by the commentator “is manifestly false, as well as being grossly sexist and belittling.”
Gaprindashvili further added that in 1968 — the year the series finale was set — she went against at least 59 male chess players “including at least ten Grandmasters of that time, including Dragolyub Velimirovich, Svetozar Gligoric, Paul Keres, Bojan Kurajica, Boris Spassky, Viswanathan Anand and Mikhail Tal. The last three were also world champions during their careers.”
Elsewhere in entertainment, Spider-Man: No Way Home has topped the box office for the seventh week.
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