Nona G, former Women’s world champion, is suing Netflix over a line in the last episode in which a reporter covering the fictional event in “Queen’s Gambit” in which created star “Beth Harmon” is playing for the World Championship in Russia. The Reporter’s line was “there’s Nona Gaprindashvili, but she’s the female world champion and has never faced men”. While this is an inaccurate statement, as Nona did face at least 10 male grand masters during this time period, and at least 50 other men, - does 60 or so games vs males truly refute what could easily be characterized,
(esp. for a time-period series), as merely a “sexist exaggeration”. Even to this day, women in chess are disparaged around the world in chess, esp, one could argue in Eastern Europe. As a chess tournament director and organizer, I have seen more than a few boys sit down to play a female opponent with words like “ah, a girl, this one will be easy.”. To be sure, the accomplishments of Nona are legendary. But could it not be well argued that such
sexist, albeit inaccurate, statements attributed to a reporter for the time period of the 60’s or even 70’s be very much
“spot on”??
Indeed, Netflix could (and probably should) use that argument in its defense. How can it be a crime to accurately depict historical figures who make inaccurate statements?
That would be like suing Quentin Tarantino for depicting slaves being whipped during the Civil War.
I’m glad I never made the mistake of saying that. At this point I’m pretty sure I’ve lost all of the most recent six (at least) OTB games where I have been paired against women and girls – one of them three times.
Bill Smythe
That may be more age-based. With experience you learn just how horribly wrong your game can go with that type of unjustified overconfidence (such as occurred to the opponents of Beth Harmon in her first rated tournament set in a time period when there were so few females playing that even older adults would be prone to that type of attitude).
If you mean my age, then yes, definitely.
Against one of those women recently, I had a definitely losing position, but I thought I had a super-rook. I played a whole bunch of rook checks, most of them hanging the rook, but she could never capture because of stalemate. Finally, she concocted a way to get her king to a square where my only rook check was two squares away from her king. After that check, she interposed a knight. Now RxN+ wouldn’t work for me because, after she played KxR, my king would now have a legal move – to a square formerly covered by the knight she had just interposed!
When she interposed that knight, she did it with such flair, and with such an elegant and delicate wrist motion, that I immediately realized she had planned the whole thing. She might as well have stood up and hollered “AHA!!”. I resigned a few moves later.
Bill Smythe
In the Author’s Note at the beginning of the novel on which the television series is based, Tevis wrote:
It’s too bad the producers of the movie couldn’t have followed Tevis’s common-sense guideline.
Tevis does mention Gaprindashvili in the book:
Saying more or less the opposite of what the television series said. I wonder where Kasparov and Pandolfini were when this canard was being set into the screenplay. They should have been watching for blunders like that – or did one of them suggest it himself?
I’d like to listen to the testimony when this case gets to the discovery stage (if it ever gets that far).
Netflix attorney: Please explain to the court, Grandmaster Gaprindashvilli, how you suffered $5 million in damages as a result of this TV show.
Presumably, her lawyer has evaluated the case to be worth $5M. I do not know how defamation cases are usually evaluated. I am sure there are precedents. Lawyers do not like to take cases that they are going to lose.
Also presumably, at her age, she doesn’t need the money, and at Netflix’s current position, the money isn’t that much for Netflix either. So what’s in it for her? I suppose, some sort of formal acknowledgment of the defamation would be involved. Could Netflix actually modify the show to correct the error? Doesn’t sound likely, but what do I know about digital filming these days.
“[Female Grandmaster X] never played men” sounds a lot like an argument that another female grandmaster and her allies have made when claiming that said female grandmaster was the first to earn the GM title in open play.
Media as prominent as the BBC World Service have recently accepted this claim uncritically. Perhaps Netflix has as well. It is not reasonably in dispute that Nona Gaprindashvili competed against men.
I don’t know. Has Mark Geragos ever won a high-profile case? Sounds like a suit that might get an attorney a bit of free TV time.
The odds are pretty good that Netflix or their insurer will settle for some undisclosed amount.
Editing the sound bite out of that episode might be included, that’s fairly easy these days.