Soviet-era chess icon Nona Gaprindashvili has sued Netflix for $5m in a defamation lawsuit over a line in The Queen’s Gambit.
The lawsuit highlights the series finale “End Game”, during which a commentator references Gaprindashvili, after Harmon beats Russian grandmaster Viktor Laev, another fictional character, at the Moscow Invitationals.
The lawsuit added that despite having these facts, Netflix “brazenly and deliberately” lied, with “actual malice” about the 80-year-old’s achievements for the “cheap” purpose of “heightening the drama”.
The camera then pans to a woman in the audience who, the lawsuit said, “is obviously meant to be Gaprindashvili”.