The 'real' Queen's Gambit sued Netflix - and won

The Queen's Gambit said she "never faced men." She'd beaten male grandmasters for 50 years. At 80, she sued Netflix for erasing her history. She won. Her name is Nona Gaprindashvili.

October 2020.

A 79-year-old Georgian woman sat down to watch The Queen's Gambit—Netflix's hit series about a fictional female chess prodigy named Beth Harmon.

The show was beautiful. The chess was accurate. The acting was superb.

Then came episode 6.

A commentator's voice: "The only unusual thing about her, really, is her sex. And even that's not unique in Russia. There's Nona Gaprindashvili, but she's the female world champion and has never faced men."

Nona Gaprindashvili—who was watching—went very still.

Never faced men?

She'd spent fifty years beating men. She'd competed in countless tournaments against male grandmasters. She'd defeated some of the strongest players in the world.

And Netflix had just erased all of it.

With one careless line, a hit show had rewritten her history—turned her into a woman who'd only played other women, diminishing decades of breaking barriers.

Nona Gaprindashvili decided: no.

At 80 years old, she sued Netflix for defamation.

Nona was born on May 3, 1941, in Zugdidi, a town in Soviet Georgia, during World War II.

The Soviet Union had a different relationship with chess than the West. Chess wasn't just a game—it was a matter of national pride. The government funded chess programs, trained champions, celebrated victories.

And unlike many Western countries, Soviet chess programs included girls.

Nona learned chess at age 13. She was a natural—aggressive, tactical, fearless.

By age 20, she was one of the strongest female players in the world.

In 1962, at age 21, Nona became Women's World Chess Champion—defeating Elisaveta Bykova.

She would hold that title for sixteen years, successfully defending it five times. She dominated women's chess like few players ever have.

But Nona wasn't satisfied playing only women.

She wanted to compete against the best players in the world—regardless of gender.

In the 1960s, chess was deeply segregated by gender.

There were "women's tournaments" and "men's tournaments"—though the men's tournaments were officially called "open" tournaments. Women could technically enter, but few did. The prejudice was overwhelming.

Male players and commentators openly said women couldn't compete at the highest levels. They claimed women's brains weren't wired for chess. That women lacked the killer instinct. That emotional women would crack under pressure.

Nona proved them all...