Netflix is under fire as a $5 million lawsuit was filed against them by Georgian Chessmaster Nona Gaprindashvili over a comment made in the finale of The Queen's Gambit when Beth Harmon faced Russian Grandmaster Viktor Laev during the Moscow Invitational. The suit was lodged on alleged sexist defamation and invasion of privacy.
The streaming giant surely made a success with the release of The Queen's Gambit during the high time of the pandemic as it became the biggest scripted miniseries of Netflix having been watched by more than 62 million households. Starring Anya Taylor-Joy as Beth Harmon, the show is about an orphan who is a chess prodigy and made her way to the top in a world full of men during the 50s and 60s.
However, Netflix is now facing a complaint filed with the United States District Court Central District of California, Western Division for alleged sexist defamation and invasion of privacy by Georgian Chessmaster Nona Gaprindashvili on September 16, 2021.
The suit arose from the finale of The Queen's Gambit where Gaprindashvili's name was mentioned while Beth Harmon was facing Viktor Laev. The commentator of the game said, "There's Nona Gaprindashvili, but she's the female world champion and has never faced men. My guess is Laev was expecting an easy win, and not at all the 27-move thrashing Beth Harmon just gave him."
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In the said comment, Nona Gaprindashvili said such was a lie as she competed against 60 men, more or less, at the 1968 setting of the episode, she claimed in the suit, "Netflix brazenly and deliberately lied about Gaprindashvili's achievements for the cheap and cynical purpose of 'heightening the drama' by making it appear that its fictional hero had managed to do what no other woman, including Gaprindashvili, had done."
In a strong statement, Gaprindashvili's camp threw a spice of words against Netflix, "the allegation that Gaprindashvili 'has never faced men' is manifestly false, as well as being grossly sexist and belittling."
Such a statement was claimed by Gaprindashvili to be a falsity and the mention of her name was an unnecessary call from Netflix just for the sake of dramatic purposes as the streaming platform could have just invented a name or have a fictional character mentioned instead.
In the suit, it was stated, "Gaprindashvili is a pioneer of women's chess and a much-loved icon in her native country of Georgia. Throughout her extraordinary career, she 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."
The spokesperson of Netflix responded saying, "Netflix has only the utmost respect for Ms. Gaprindashvili and her illustrious career, but we believe this claim has no merit and will vigorously defend the case."
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