Fifth Women's world champion sues Netflix for Queen's Gambit episode inaccuracy

HI all

(DISCLAIMER #1 : Please forgive any "inaccuracies" in this article - the opinions expressed are purely my own, and I try and generally sit on the fence anyway in this one - you can form your own opinions based on the available evidence and information in the newspapers, and Reddit, etc. Message me if I have committed any major inaccuracies (or even "minor ones") and I can edit this article to correct as needed. I would also like to add I really overall enjoyed the Netflix Queen's gambit series and did not spot this error when viewing it. I might have to rewatch the series again, as clearly I was not very alert or attentive to details. )

DISCLAIMER #2: If you read past the first horizontal line below - you implicitly accept any "inaccuracies" I made when doing this blog post.
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OKAY OKAY... I checked my iPhone as you do around 6 in the morning, and noticed on Reddit this thread
http://kingscrusher.tv/nona
which is about Nona Gaprindashvili apparently suing Netlfix for an inaccuracy in the Queen's Gambit Netflix series.

The book version was apparently something like this:

"There was Nona Gaprindashvili, not up to the level of this tournament, but a player who had met all these Russian Grandmasters many times before."

The Netflix series version was apparently something like this:

"There’s Nona Gaprindashvili, but she’s the female world champion and has never faced men."

I was curious to check out Nona (the real person, and not the fictional version) and the real one has indeed played many male chess players including notably:

Paul Keres (an uncrowned king of the game)

Final position:

Mikhail Tal (former World champion)
Final position:

Boris Spassky (former World champion) (okay Boris beat her but even so it was a long struggle)
Final position:

Vishy Anand (former World champion)
Final position:

and the list goes on...

The concrete evidence at Chessgames indicates she has not only played men, but she has also played some of our greatest male champions of the game including Mikhail Tal, Boris Spassky, Paul Keres, Vishy Anand, etc. And she has even managed to draw with some of them on occasion!

Additionally, she has beaten Judit Polgar (who of course is female and has also beaten many top male grandmasters including World champion Garry Kasparov) :

Anyway, it seems actually this is not new "news" - it was reported some months back in a British newspaper.

It will be interesting to see the outcome of the case. it is intriguing that it seems that one of the only real names alluded to is unfortunately it seems, downplayed for her achievements to give greater credibility to a fictional character. Maybe she has a point? Maybe it's a storm in the teacup?

Anyway interesting stuff.....

One of her more brilliant wins vs a Georgian Champion Alexander Blagidze played in 1963
https://youtu.be/OM9i%5fzIJqMA

PS. This has now reached the front page of the BBC News site on 17th September 2021 (or thereabouts) :
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-58600453

Takeaway points

• Perhaps Netflix should have used more fictional names
• Perhaps it is bad to boost the credibility of fictional characters at the expense of real named people in chess history with real achievements
• Perhaps Nona Gaprindashvili has a point - but one could also argue the series was meant to be purely fictional and not to believe anything said by the characters necessarily
• Perhaps there is a disclaimer in the series somewhere about the characters having no relationship with anyone in real life
• We can all potentially still play chess at 80 years old!

Hope you enjoyed this blog :). Any likes and follows are really appreciated. Also, I also have some interesting chess courses at https://kingscrusher.tv/chesscourses to check out.

Cheers, K