Legal dispute between the Georgian chess player and Netflix ends in settlement
Litigation between Nona Gaprindashvili and NETFLIX
The legal dispute between famous Georgian chess player Nona Gaprindashvili and streaming giant Netflix has ended in a settlement agreement initiated by the company, Variety and the Hollywood Reporter say.
The settlement was reached in private and therefore no details are available.
What happened
In 2021, five-time world champion Nona Gaprindashvili sued Netflix over a line in the show about her never having played against a male chess player.
In the last episode of the series, the commentator of the Moscow chess tournament says of the main character:
“The only oddity about her is her gender, but that doesn’t make her unique in Russia. There is Nona Gaprindashvili, although she is a women’s world champion who has never played against a male chess player.”
Nona Gaprindashvili was defended by the law firm BLB. According to lawyers, the assertion that Gaprindashvili never played against a man is a clear lie, as well as extremely “sexist and humiliating.”
“By 1968, when this episode takes place, she had played at least 59 male chess players, including at least ten grandmasters,” the lawsuit says.
Netflix later filed a motion to stay the lawsuit which a California court denied.
Litigation between Nona Gaprindashvili and Netflix