‘Queen’s Gambit’ defamation lawsuit against Netflix can move forward, judge says

A federal choose on Thursday refused a bid by Netflix to dismiss a lawsuit introduced by a former Soviet chess member who sued the streaming big over a line in its collection “The Queen’s Gambit,” wherein a fictional character claimed that this “feminine world champion has by no means confronted males.”

In September, Nona Gaprindashvili — a chess grasp who grew to become a champion below the previous Soviet Union — filed a $5 million defamation lawsuit within the Central District of California. She alleges that the primary character Elizabeth Harmon (Anya Taylor-Pleasure) is a tough approximation of her and {that a} line within the collection finale referring to her real-life success was “manifestly false, in addition to being grossly sexist and belittling.”

“By 1968, the yr wherein this episode is about, [Gaprindashvili] had competed in opposition to no less than 59 male chess gamers (28 of them concurrently in a single recreation), together with no less than ten Grandmasters of that point,” the lawsuit states.

U.S. District Decide Virginia A. Phillips denied Netflix’s movement to dismiss the lawsuit in a ruling on Thursday, stating {that a} work of fiction “doesn’t insulate Netflix from legal responsibility for defamation if all the weather of defamation are in any other case current.”

Netflix didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon Friday, however advised NBC Information in September that the streaming big “has solely the utmost respect for Ms. Gaprindashvili and her illustrious profession, however we consider this declare has no benefit and can vigorously defend the case.”

“The Queen’s Gambit” — launched in 2020 and based mostly on a 1983 novel of the identical identify, about an American lady who overcomes the chances to grow to be a champion within the male-dominated chess world of the ‘50s and ‘60s — garnered 18 Emmy nominations for Netflix, together with excellent restricted collection and finest lead actress for star Taylor-Pleasure.

Gaprindashvili is taken into account a chess pioneer, turning into the primary lady to be awarded the title of Grandmaster by the Worldwide Chess Federation in 1978, in response to the World Chess Corridor of Fame. Amongst her many accolades, she has received the Ladies’s World Championship 5 instances and Ladies’s Soviet Chess Championship 5 instances.

Tim Fitzsimons and Diana Dasrath contributed.