Soviet chess champion Nona Gaprindashvili is suing Netflix over a line within the hit sequence, The Queen’s Gambit, which claimed she “by no means performed males”.
The chess participant’s lawsuit is demanding $5 million in compensation from the mega-streaming website, and was filed on Thursday within the federal district court docket in Los Angeles.
The Queen’s Gambit has been a extremely celebrated sequence for Netflix, which is predicated on the 1983 novel by Walter Tevis.
It follows the fictional journey of feminine chess participant Beth Harmon. Harmon is performed by Anya Taylor-Pleasure, who travels to Moscow for a sequence of chess matches in opposition to Soviet champions.
Most of the American and Worldwide chess gamers referenced or depicted within the sequence are primarily based on true gamers. Whereas Gaprindashvili just isn’t depicted, her identify is talked about.
The road Gaprindashvili holds concern with is from the sequence finale.
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A personality says: “Elizabeth Harmon’s under no circumstances an vital participant by their requirements. The one uncommon factor about her, actually, is her intercourse. And even that is not distinctive in Russia.
“There’s Nona Gaprindashvili, however she’s the feminine world champion and has by no means confronted males.”
Gaprindashvili has blankly rejected the assertion, calling it “grossly sexist and belittling”.
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Now 80, and dwelling in Tbilisi, Georgia, Gaprindashvili assures that she did face males in her matches. In response to the lawsuit, she confronted 59 males — 28 in a single match, in addition to 10 grandmasters by the point the Netflix sequence was set in 1968.
In an interview with the New York Instances Gaprindashvili voiced her discontent: “They had been making an attempt to do that fictional character who was blazing the path for different girls, when in actuality I had already blazed the path and impressed generations.
“That is the irony,” she added.
Damages are being looked for what the swimsuit is looking a “devastating falsehood, undermining and degrading her accomplishments earlier than an viewers of many hundreds of thousands”.
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The swimsuit additionally raises the problem of Gaprindashvili being portrayed as Russian, when she is the truth is, Georgian, born in Zugdidi, Georgia.
“That is my whole life that has been crossed out, as if it isn’t vital,” Gaprindashvili dismayed in her interview with the New York Instances.
In an extra assertion revealed by the Instances, Netflix mentioned it “has solely the utmost respect for Ms Gaprindashvili and her illustrious profession, however we imagine this declare has no advantage and can vigorously defend the case.”
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