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A Lawsuit Over Chess Credentials, and Other Legal News You May Have Missed

By Richard Dahl on September 30, 2021

"The Queen's Gambit," the fictional account of a woman's rise to stardom in the world of chess, was a hit series for Netflix last year.

Anya Taylor-Joy enjoyed critical acclaim for her performance as Beth Harmon, an orphaned prodigy who defeats one male challenger after another on her way to the top. Netflix also enjoyed acclaim for the series, but now it's facing a legal challenge for allegedly playing fast and loose with historical facts.

Here's how (spoiler alert!):

In the series' final episode, set in 1968, Ms. Harmon competes in a championship tournament in Moscow against yet another male challenger, and we hear this from a commentator describing the action: "The only unusual thing about (Beth) 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."

Wrong.

Gaprindashvili, now 80, is unhappy with her depiction in "The Queen's Gambit" — so unhappy, in fact, that she is suing Netflix for millions in damages.

While it is true that Gaprindashvili was the female world champion, the record clearly shows that she competed successfully against men. She is also the first woman to be named a chess grandmaster, earning the honor in 1978.

The lawsuit against Netflix, filed in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in Los Angeles, seeks $5 million in damages for a "devastating falsehood, undermining and degrading her accomplishments before an audience of many millions," and the removal of the line about her not competing against men.

Netflix responded with a statement: "Netflix has only the utmost respect for Ms. Gaprindashvili and her illustrious career, but we believe this claim has no merit and will vigorously defend the case."

Chicken Producers Settle

We've written here previously about the U.S. Justice Department's crackdown on price fixers in the broiler chicken industry. There have been new developments.

The DOJ says consumers have been paying too much for packaged chicken as a result of the price-fixing. And now a $181-million settlement in the Broiler Chicken Antitrust Litigation, a class-action lawsuit, could mean that overcharged customers may get refunds.

Submitting a claim appears to be simple. If you purchased fresh or frozen raw chicken from any of the defendant companies between Jan. 1, 2009, and Dec. 31, 2020, in any of 24 states (see below), you may file a claim form at Overchargedforchicken.com. The form asks for best estimates on the number of packages purchased and what they cost — no receipts necessary.

If you're lucky, it could put a few dollars in your pocket — eventually.

The 24 states are California, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, and Wisconsin, as well as Washington, D.C.

Lawsuit: Nevada Turns a Blind Eye to Sex Trafficking

Two women who claim they were forced into sex trafficking have filed a federal lawsuit against Nevada officials and others over what they say are the state's lax prostitution laws.

Nevada, they allege, "has allowed sex traffickers to operate in Nevada with impunity."

The plaintiffs are seeking compensation for being trafficked and also seeking injunctive relief for all of the state's sex industry workers. Such a ruling could jeopardize the state's legal sex work industry.

For one of the plaintiffs, Angela Delgado-Williams, the lawsuit is her second attempt to link sex trafficking with lax state laws. She filed a similar lawsuit that was dismissed in 2019 by a judge who found that the harm that she and two other women suffered was not a function of the state's prostitution laws.

'Lane Filtering' Soon to be OK for Montana Motorcyclists

If you're a motorcyclist in Montana and you've been annoyed by clogged or slow-moving vehicular traffic, help is on the way.

On Oct. 1, it will be legal for drivers of two-wheel motorcycles to "filter" between lanes of stopped or slow-moving vehicles, as long as they are "reasonable and prudent" and don't exceed a speed of 20 mph.

Montana is the third state to allow lane filtering, following the leads of California and Utah.

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