(New York) Georgian chess player Nona Gaprindashvili has reached an amicable agreement with Netflix ending the legal proceedings initiated by the legend of Soviet chess, who accused the platform of having disparaged her in his hit series The Queen’s Gambit (The lady’s game), a source familiar with the matter told AFP on Wednesday.
Posted yesterday at 12:15 p.m.
“I am happy that this file has found a way out,” the player’s lawyer, Alexander Rufus-Isaacs, told AFP. Asked by AFP, Netflix did not respond immediately. The two parties had been engaged in mediation proceedings since March.
As a result of this arrangement, the platform formally waived Tuesday to appeal a decision of a federal judge in Los Angeles, who had considered that the action of Mme Gaprindashvili was well founded, even though the series was intended to be fiction.
The transaction amount was not sent. The Georgian champion claimed $5 million in damages from Netflix.
Nona Gaprindashvili criticized the authors of the series for having defamed her by including a mention of the Georgian player, according to whom she had “never faced men” in competition, unlike the fictional heroine of The Queen’s GambitAmerican Beth Harmon (played by Anya Taylor-Joy).
However, in 1968, the year during which is supposed to take place The Queen’s Gambitthe legend of Soviet chess had already faced dozens of men, had argued the interested party.
This allegation against M.me Gaprindashvili “is manifestly false, as well as grossly sexist and denigrating”, specified the Georgian player in the subpoena filed in federal court in Los Angeles in September 2021.
The platform had initially considered this action without “any basis”, arguing that it was a work of fiction protected by the American Constitution and its first amendment which guarantees freedom of expression.
A line of defense invalidated by judge Virginia Phillips, before the two parties finally agreed on an out-of-court outcome.
Mme Gaprindashvili became, in 1978, the first female chess grandmaster in history.