A Los Angeles judge has declared the lawsuit against him admissible. Netflix by the Georgian Nona Gaprindashvili, a Soviet chess legend who accuses the platform of making her sexist in her hit “Queen’s Gambit” series.
The Georgian champion claims $ 5 million from Netflix in damage.
In the series, a character claims that Gaprindashvili “has never faced men” in competition, unlike the fictional “Lady’s Gambit” heroine, the American Beth Harmon, interpreted by Anya Taylor-Joy.
“This is clearly false, as well as grossly sexist and degrading,” specified the complaint lodged last September by the champion, now 80 years old.
The complainant, who became the first chess grandmaster in history in 1978, had already encountered dozens of leading male players in 1968, the year “Queen’s Gambit” was supposed to take place.
Netflix denied that they wanted to offend the champion and said in a press release that he had “the utmost respect for Gaprindashvili and her illustrious career.”
However, the platform at the time described this complaint as “unfounded”, arguing that it was a work of fiction protected by the US Constitution and its first amendment, guaranteeing freedom of expression.
In a ruling issued Thursday, Judge Virginia Phillips in California ruled that a fiction work is not immune to libel cases if it harms real people.
Nona Gaprindashvili, born in 1941 in Zugdidi, western Georgia, has been playing chess since she was 13 years old. She won the women’s world championship at 20 and successfully defended her title four times, before losing her crown in 1978 to another 17-year-old Georgian, Maia Chibourdanidze.
“The Queen’s Gambit” (Queen’s Gambit) broke records with 62 million views worldwide in four weeks and won 11 Emmy Awards.
Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx