Pioneering Female Chess Champ Sues Netflix over "Queen's Gambit" Slight!!!

By the way, there is a new Austrian film about Nona. She seems to be quite cool. And who wouldn't be upset to be misrepresented by Hollywood to let the main character shine brighter?

I think that sums up your qualifications to speak on this matter.

The comment in the film is both factually incorrect and, in its context, clearly intended as a slight.  If that's not defamation, what do people think defamation is?!?

It's easy to think of this as the sort of goof we all make all the time.   But we're not a huge media company, with an army of people whose job it is to watch out for mistakes of this sort.  And most of us don't have the capacity to broadcast our errors to hundreds of millions of people.  Netflix knows that they're not supposed to make mistakes like this.  Whoever was vetting the script for such things failed to do the proper checking and assumed either that it was true or that Gaprindashvili was dead.

I doubt this will go to trial. Rather, Netflix will settle, and Gaprindashvili will get a decent chunk of change -- less than she sued for, but considerably more than nothing. I'm sure lawyers for both sides are busily negotiating how much as we speak.  

Netflix made a huge amount of money on this show.  I'm sure they aren't thrilled to pay out for this sort of error, but, relative to the show's success, the hit will be minor.  They'll be fine.

Paul Morphy must be spinning in his grave over the fact that he never beat Olivia de Havilland.

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HERETICS

Nice shoe Gina.

I thought Brits were polite?! 

     The screenwriters wanted to show that international chess officialdom was biased against women and tried to keep them out of big-time mens' events, so they had a character insult the best and best known (at the time the story is set) woman player in the world. This is known as "artistic license" and there is always some sort of disclaimer buried in the fine print near the end of the credits that limits the liability of the producers for such fictional statements. And there is a compliment embedded there--the idea that if any woman was worthy of playing vs top men, it would be Nona.

     Sadly, there is also a kernel of truth embedded there. During her career Nona complained that she couldn't get into the biggest events, and even after earning the GM title she continued to play almost exclusively in womens' events because she could participate in events with bigger payoffs that way.

Hmmmm. Should I do a classic "Blanket Block" of everyone here, or just make an example of a few of the worst miscreants?  

Decisions, decisions...

Remember, I AM THE OP!!!  And I have THE POWER!

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Presumably Gina you have graduated by now.  Or maybe you were held back a year or two.

Ah, I get it.  It was an inadvertent deployment of reverse psychology on my part.  Of course!!! Why didn't I see it before?  A struggling OP looking for more points takes a flagging thread and tells people not only that they shouldn't post, but they can't, the thread is "Deactivated". 

He threatens to block people, which only goads them into posting even more.  Suddenly he has a Hot Topic on his hands, which is what he wanted all along.

At the very least it's a fascinating study of online mob behaviors, depersonalization, and asymmetrical  power dynamics.

Thread .... deactivated? 

Ok, I'll try this:

THREAD REACTIVATED!

OP LOOKING FOR MORE POSTS!!!

POST YOUR ARMCHAIR LEGAL ANALYSIS HERE!!!

I really hope this reverse psychology thing works.

Oh no.  I think I just messed up.  Wikipedia says when using reverse psychology you're not supposed to tell people you are using it.

Oy vey.

LET'S TAKE TAKE THIS THREAD TO A THOUSAND POSTS!!!!

No matter what you do, whether you post, or don't post, you are all playing MY game now!

Because I am the OP and I could literally block you from posting here.  

In other words Game Over for you, or anyone in this thread if I so choose.

You post here at MY discretion, and should feel fortunate that I am mostly a benevolent OP.

I grow weary of your chatter.  I can block, and then unblock, and block again, on so on, as I deem fit.  The point is, I get to choose, not you.

And if you don't care then I don't either. 

I will decide in the morning. 

Well the fact I had never heard about her is sorta relevant. I play chess. So if a chess player never heard of her, what are the odds the average Netflix viewer ever heard of her? You have to admit, the name does sound made up. I don't think anyone really believed any of the names in the movie were real. It's fiction. 

But even so, the line in the movie is not entirely factually incorrect. It is in fact true Nona never played against men in the context of what the commentators were talking about. But even if it WERE false that cannot rise to the level of defamation because it's a fictional movie. Everything about it is fictional. And real life people are slighted in movies and media all the time, with no consequences because the courts have consistently ruled this way. 

This is clearly a SLAAP lawsuit, so there is no chance she will win. (well, maybe one in a million chance). She did it because she got bad advice. If Netflix settles, which I doubt they will, it would set a precedent nobody in the media industry wants to see. The case is SO meritless I wouldn't be surprised to see a countersuit. 

Thank you God, it worked!