Queens Gambit: Netflix’s revisionist history

There have been worse examples of the US changing historical facts to fit its aggrandising national narrative, but it’s hard not to wince at the latest one that’s surfaced. Georgian chess grandmaster Nona Gaprindashvili — who made real history as the world’s first woman grandmaster — is suing Netflix over what she says is a defamatory portrayal of her in the series The Queen’s Gambit. She’s looking for $5m in damages.

The Los Angeles Times, revealing a subjective and strangely defensive solidarity with a US company with more than 209-million subscribers, describes this as "Gaprindashvili has waged an attack on Netflix". (Note the choice of words, to which we’ll return later.)..