Netflix is to answer a defamation case brought by chess master Nona Gaprindashvili in relation to its hit series The Queen’s Gambit after a US judge refused a motion from the streaming giant to dismiss it.
Trailblazing Georgian chess champion Gaprindashvili, who rose to prominence in the 1960s, has accused Netflix of misrepresenting one of her “most significant career achievements” to viewers after a character in the Emmy-winning show falsely said she hadn’t faced men during competitions.
The hit show told the story of young female chess champion Beth Harmon played by Anya Taylor-Joy, who scooped a number of awards for the role. The programme clocked 62 million viewers in its first month and set the record for viewers of a limited series.
Gaprindashvili’s lawyers called the line “grossly sexist and belittling,” stating that in reality she had faced 59 male competitors by 1968, the year in which the series was set.
on Thursday, a judge at California Central District Court said there had been no evidence of any cases “precluding defamation claims for the portrayal of real persons in otherwise fictional works”.
WSN
