A friendly settlement between a world chess champion and “Netflix” because of a “series”

Georgian chess player Nonna Gabrindashvili has reached an amicable settlement with (Netflix) that led to the dropping of a lawsuit brought by the Soviet chess star to the platform for being defamed in the hit platform series "The Queen's Gambit", according to a source familiar with the file. told AFP yesterday.

"I am happy to find a way out of this case," the player's attorney, Alexander Rufus Isaacs, told AFP.

Agence France-Presse did not immediately receive any response from Netflix to its questions in this regard.

The two parties resorted to judicial mediation since last March.

As a result of their settlement, the platform officially dismissed on Tuesday an appeal of a federal judge’s decision in Los Angeles, which considered that “the fact that the series is a work of fiction does not absolve Netflix of liability for defamation if all the elements of defamation are present.”

No information was available about the value of the deal between the two conflicting parties, knowing that the Georgian heroine was asking Netflix for damages of five million dollars.

Gabrindashvili's lawsuit was based on a dialogue in one of the series' scenes in which a character claims that the Georgian heroine "didn't play any men's matches" in tournaments during her career as a player, unlike the series' fictional main character, American player Beth Harmon (Ania Taylor-Joy).

In the lawsuit, Gabrindashvili recalled that she faced dozens of male rivals in 1968, the year in which The Queens Gambit primarily takes place.

The Georgian heroine described this claim as "false" in the lawsuit she filed in September 2021 before a federal court in Los Angeles, saying that it contained "blatant sexism and derogatory tendencies."

Netflix's lawyers have pushed for the lawsuit to be dismissed on the grounds that the series is a work of fiction and thus falls under the provisions of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which protects freedom of expression.

But federal judge Virginia Phillips rejected their request, noting that "the fact that the series is a work of fiction does not absolve Netflix of liability for defamation if all its elements are present," before the two parties finally agreed to resort to judicial mediation.

Gabrindashvili was the first woman to be awarded the title of Grand Master by the International Chess Federation in 1978.

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