Netflix
- The Queen’s Gambit was one of Netflix most popular shows of 2020, earning it a stunning 18 nominations at this weekend’s Primetime Emmys.
- However, one line from the show’s season finale could end up costing Netflix $5 million.
- Soviet chess icon and the first female grandmaster Nona Gaprindashvili filed a defamation lawsuit against Netflix on Thursday over a “grossly sexist and belittling” line.
Remember The Queen’s Gambit? That was like 5 internet years ago, yet I still maintain it’s the best show I’ve seen where absolutely nothing happens.
After its release in October 2020, the coming-of-age period drama became Netflix’s most-watched scripted miniseries, the streaming service’s top show in 63 countries, and the recipient of 18 nominations at this weekend’s Emmys.
But, not everyone has been enamored with the adaptation of Walter Tevi’s 1983 novel, especially chess champion Nona Gaprindashvili, who filed a defamation lawsuit against Netflix on Thursday over a line referencing her in the “End Game” season finale.
Stanley Sherman/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Initially reported by Deadline, the Soviet chess icon and first female grandmaster is irate over a “grossly sexist and belittling” comment made about her when an announcer adds color to Beth Harmon’s (Anya Taylor-Joy) final chess match in the series.
“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.”
This is hogwash, according to the 25-page lawsuit.
Gaprindashvili had allegedly faced 59 male chess players by the time this episode took place in 1968.
“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, 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.”
The suit alleges Netflix “brazenly and deliberately lied” about her for the “cheap and cynical purpose of ‘heightening the drama,'” claiming a series looking to “inspire women” ultimately “humiliated the one real woman trail blazer who had actually faced and defeated men on the world stage in the same era,” per Yahoo.
A Netflix spokesperson told Deadline that it has the “utmost respect for Ms. Gaprindashvili and her illustrious career” but that “we believe this claim has no merit and will vigorously defend the case.”
Gaprindashvili is determined to have Netflix apologize with a seven-figure payout and the removal of the line from the show going forward.
https://twitter.com/anyafiles/status/1436895043420401665?s=20