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    A Chess Champion Resolves Her ‘Queen’s Gambit’ Lawsuit Against Netflix

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    The fictional series had named Nona Gaprindashvili, a pioneering real-life chess champion, and falsely claimed she had “never faced men.” She sued for defamation.Lawyers for the pioneering chess champion Nona Gaprindashvili filed papers in federal court on Tuesday suggesting that they had settled her defamation lawsuit against Netflix over what they had described as a “devastating falsehood” about her in its fictional hit series “The Queen’s Gambit.”The agreement comes almost a year after Ms. Gaprindashvili, the first woman to be named a grandmaster, sued Netflix over a line in the final episode of the series that mentioned her by name and said, incorrectly, that she had “never faced men.” In fact, Ms. Gaprindashvili had played against many male champions over the course of her career, including before the episode in question took place.“An insulting experience” was how Ms. Gaprindashvili described her portrayal in the show in an interview last year with The New York Times.“I am pleased that the matter has been resolved,” said Alexander Rufus-Isaacs, a lawyer for Ms. Gaprindashvili. He provided no additional comment, and declined to say how the case had been resolved or whether any money had changed hands.In court documents filed in June, lawyers for Ms. Gaprindashvili and Netflix had said “parties are working with the Ninth Circuit mediator to explore settlement.”Netflix echoed Mr. Rufus-Isaacs’s statement, saying only that it too was “pleased the matter has been resolved.”In court papers, it had argued that Netflix had been exercising “its constitutional right of free speech in connection with a public issue” and that the line in question was “part of a fictional television series that addresses a number of significant matters of public interest, including the challenges women faced competing in the male-dominated world of elite chess during the 1960s.”“The First Amendment protects the creator’s artistic license to include the line in the fictional series,” lawyers for Netflix wrote in their motion to dismiss the lawsuit.On Tuesday, lawyers for Netflix also filed a motion to voluntarily dismiss its appeal in the case.“The Queen’s Gambit,” based on the 1983 novel by Walter Tevis, became what Netflix described as its biggest limited scripted series ever. The series, which starred Anya Taylor-Joy, won two Golden Globes and has garnered 11 Emmy Awards; there are also plans for it to be adapted into a stage musical.Alain Delaquérière contributed research. More

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      Making Chess Sing: ‘Queen’s Gambit’ to Be Adapted for the Stage

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyMaking Chess Sing: ‘Queen’s Gambit’ to Be Adapted for the StageA creative team has not yet been set for the proposed show, which would be based on the 1983 novel that spawned the hit streaming series.Anya Taylor-Joy and Thomas Brodie-Sangster in the Netflix adaptation of the novel “The Queen’s Gambit.”Credit…via NetflixMarch 8, 2021, 11:02 a.m. ETBeth Harmon is making her next move.A production company led by a Disney heir is planning to adapt “The Queen’s Gambit” into a stage musical. The fictional story is about an orphan girl — that’s Harmon — who becomes a pill-popping prodigy in the overwhelmingly male world of chess.Level Forward, a company whose founders include Abigail Disney, a grandniece of Walt Disney, said on Monday that it has won the rights to adapt Walter Tevis’s 1983 novel, which has become newly noteworthy thanks to the enormous success of last year’s streaming series adaptation on Netflix.Level Forward is not yet announcing a creative team or any other details of the project.The company has a decidedly progressive bent (it describes itself as “an ecosystem of storytellers, business people and social change organizers”), and is a relatively recent but active player in the theater industry, co-producing four Broadway shows in 2019: “What the Constitution Means to Me,” “Slave Play,” “Jagged Little Pill” and a revival of “Oklahoma!”The game of chess, although seemingly unlikely fodder for song-and-dance, has inspired at least one other musical: In the 1980s, the lyricist Tim Rice collaborated with Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus of Abba to write “Chess,” a fictional account of a tournament between an American and a Soviet grandmaster. The show had a well-received score that remains an object of affection and fascination for some, but, despite repeated efforts at revisions, it has not found success onstage; it ran for two months on Broadway in 1988.“The Queen’s Gambit” project is just at the start of its developmental life, and it’s not yet clear when or where there might be a production.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Swapping Songs With Chess Grandmaster Garry Kasparov

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storySwapping Songs With Chess Grandmaster Garry KasparovMusic brought a critic and a guest together, in a conversation about Bach, Beethoven, chess and politics.Garry Kasparov, shown here in 1997, picked Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 (“Eroica”) to share; our critic chose Bach’s “Goldberg” Variations.Credit…Ted Thai/The LIFE Picture Collection, via Getty ImagesDec. 18, 2020, 10:00 a.m. ETMusic, we all know, can bring people together. To stimulate a conversation between a music critic and a guest — in this case, the Russian chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov — about listening and life, there was one ground rule: Each participant suggests a single piece for the other to listen to ahead of the chat.I chose Bach’s “Goldberg” Variations. Mr. Kasparov picked Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3, “Eroica.”Born in Baku, Azerbaijan, Mr. Kasparov comes from a musical family: His paternal grandfather and uncle were composers, his grandmother was a pianist and his father studied the violin before becoming an engineer. A former World Chess Champion, Mr. Kasparov is now a political activist, a prominent critic of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and the chairman of the Renew Democracy Initiative. He spoke by phone from his home in Croatia, where he has spent the pandemic with his wife, Daria, and their two children. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.[embedded content]The two pieces we picked are interesting in the context of the pandemic. The Beethoven symphony has the social dimension of the full orchestra and the Bach is a solitary puzzle.The “Goldbergs” are not just one piece! It’s like an encyclopedia of music.I like that. There is that sense of trying out a problem according to different possibilities. I picked Bach for you, with all his fugues, because I think of chess as having similar qualities. The elegance of algorithms and the beauty that comes out of processes that actually obey very strict rules.For me it was a new experience. I don’t listen to much music before Mozart. It was quite a discovery to understand that Bach introduced many future themes. From the chess or computer world, I would use the term founding father. I am amazed by people who are ahead of their time.Listening to the “Goldbergs” I was struck by what I see as parallels with the way pieces move in chess. Even in the opening Aria, there is this very methodical movement in the left hand, while the right hand has much more freedom.I’m not sure. I see the Aria as something godly, heavenly — but then it goes back to earth. It’s this combination.What do you make of the fugues in strict counterpoint? These lines that interlock in a way that is both a beautiful mechanism and has this creative freedom to it.Well, it’s about variety. I read the legend that Bach wrote it for his patron to fight insomnia. But it doesn’t strike me as something that helps people go to sleep. The first 10 variations, he’s basically demonstrating his power as a composer. But then he shifts to something that is more interesting. In many of the variations we can hear the herald of new music. I have one favorite: Variation 25. It’s Chopin. It’s the first Ballade. And I love Chopin.What is it that attracts you to that? I hear a lot of melancholy in that variation.It’s not sadness. It’s a kind of realism. The world is as it is, and we have to accept it. It makes me feel comfortable. I also like Variation 13. It draws you into this water of music. And for energy and style I would pick number 16. In Variations 14 and 29, Bach is a virtuoso à la Liszt.I get the sense that the connections I made to chess don’t feel true to you at all. Did you find anything that you could relate to the game?It’s more how the music relates to me, Garry Kasparov, the person. I left the professional game years ago. Sure, the “Goldbergs” are an encyclopedia. It’s a demonstration of what could be done. It was prescient.I was also curious to ask you about artificial intelligence, and to what extent beauty can come out of a closed system with its own rules. Can a machine make moves that are elegant or is the human spark required? There are efforts that try to teach machines to write music, even in the style of Bach.A machine can learn rules, whether it’s chess or music. Offered a variety of options, it can eventually come up with something. But creativity has a human quality: It accepts the notion of failure.The way machines approach a problem is always about the bottom line: “This move is good because it offers the best return.” But creative beauty is not to go against the rules, but beyond the known pattern.You’re setting up a nice transition to the Beethoven symphony you picked. So much of that is about changing received patterns and disrupting expectations. He has accents in the wrong place that take you off guard and build drama. A machine would never see the advantage of breaking those rules.In a closed space a machine will beat humans. But when we are talking about art, the lines are blurry. We enjoy the journey into the unknown.In Beethoven’s period, music was structured around the development of a theme. It encounters an opposing theme and out of that a story unfolds. I was curious if you could connect that to a chess game. In the sense that the opening determines a lot, but that it’s in the encounter with your opponent that the game develops.Sorry to disappoint you again. I view this from a different angle. They wrote the music because they heard it in their heads. It’s pure genius. They can make very complicated constructions. But it’s flow. It’s intuition. That’s also my playing style. That’s the only time I can make a parallel to my playing. I know when a move is right.With Beethoven I see it as heroic. But it’s different from Wagner. That’s mythology. It comes from another world. With Beethoven it’s human.At a granular level the “Eroica” has this energetic play with the idea of disruption — creating crises and then rushing forward again. Are there parallels you can draw to your political activism, with how to effect change?Now you hit the right button. It’s more about my political engagement. You have to pretend to be heroic. But our fight is not for some mythological object or carving our name in the history books; it’s about other humans and improving the world we live in. And that’s a shift. The “Eroica” is very rich with this shift.I appreciate you being honest and rejecting my high-flung theories about counterpoint and chess. It shows that what one person reads into music is not necessarily what’s there at all. It was fun to try out these ideas with you.Thank you for forcing me to listen to the “Goldberg” Variations. Now I have a greater appreciation of Bach. I was very surprised by how modern it feels.It might have something to do with transparency. Because in Bach’s keyboard music the structure is visible, the same way in really good modern architecture form just follows function.I could use another analogy. These days I’m doing a lot of Lego with my five-year-old. You have a plan and then you have the Legos. And you can always see the structure.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      ‘Le Jeu de la dame’ encourage les femmes à se mettre aux échecs

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best MoviesBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest TheaterBest AlbumsThe actress Beth Behrs has been obsessed with chess since watching ‘The Queen’s Gambit’ on Netflix.Credit…Jessica Lehrman for The New York TimesSkip to contentSkip to site index ‘Le Jeu de la dame’ encourage les femmes à se mettre aux échecs La série-phare de Netflix montre que “les femmes peuvent être des rock stars” aux échecs; elle suscite de nouvelles vocations auprès de ses fans, dont des adolescentes et l’actrice Beth Behrs. The actress Beth Behrs has been obsessed with chess since watching ‘The Queen’s Gambit’ on Netflix.Credit…Jessica Lehrman for The New York TimesSupported byContinue reading the main storyDec. 11, 2020Read in EnglishLa comédienne Beth Behrs a une nouvelle obsession — les échecs — et c’est la faute de la série “Le Jeu de la dame”, sur Netflix. Elle lui a même attiré des ennuis sur le plateau de la série CBS “The Neighborhood” dans laquelle elle joue le rôle de Gemma Johnson.“Ils m’ont crié dessus hier au boulot parce que je cachais mon téléphone sous mon scénario”, raconte-t-elle. “Au lieu de faire mon métier d’actrice, je jouais à Chess.com.”Behrs est loin d’être la seule à s’être découvert cette nouvelle passion. “Le Jeu de la dame”, ou “The Queen’s Gambit”, raconte l’histoire de Beth Harmon, une prodige aux échecs, qui se fraie un chemin dans le monde des tournois, dominé par les hommes. La série est un succès pour Netflix — 62 millions de foyers ont regardé au moins une partie de la série, selon la plateforme de streaming — et le phénomène a réveillé l’intérêt pour ce jeu, notamment auprès de femmes et de jeunes filles.Chess.com, le site sur lequel jouait Beth Behrs, a enregistré plus de 2,35 millions de joueurs supplémentaires depuis la sortie de la série fin octobre, selon Nick Barton, son directeur du développement commercial. Les inscriptions de femmes sont en hausse de 15% depuis la diffusion du “Jeu de la dame”, précise-t-il.La demande de cours d’échecs monte en flèche. Evan Rabin, le fondateur de Premier Chess, précise que les inscriptions à des leçons virtuelles cet automne ont crû de 50%, en grande partie par des femmes. Chez Maxim Dlugy, un grand maître qui dirige la Chess Max Academy à Manhattan, la demande de cours particuliers a doublé, et lui aussi constate qu’il y a davantage de joueuses.Parmi ces nouvelles adeptes, il y a Leyli Zohrenejad, membre du conseil d’administration de plusieurs organisations à but non lucratif, dont Pioneer Works à Red Hook, un quartier de Brooklyn. Elle a appris à déplacer les pièces lorsqu’elle était jeune, mais ne s’est mise proprement à jouer qu’avec la diffusion du “Jeu de la dame”.“Ça m’a en quelque sorte décidé à passer de ces jeux distrayants sur smartphone à quelque chose de vraiment plus significatif”, explique Zohrenejad.Elle prend jusqu’à quatre leçons par semaine et débute certaines de ses journées en réfléchissant à des problèmes d’échecs, sa tasse de café à la main.Beth Behrs chez elle. Elle et son mari, l’acteur Michael Gladis, se réservent une soirée à deux par semaine pour jouer aux échecs.Credit…Jessica Lehrman for The New York Times“Ça me réveille le cerveau le matin”, dit-elle. “Il n’y pas grand chose que je puisse faire le matin qui me mettrait dans une disposition d’esprit similaire”. Svetlana Timofejeva, qui vit à Athènes, en Grèce, a débuté des cours d’échecs il y a quelques semaines avec Anastasiya Karlovich, une femme grand maître, après avoir vu sur Facebook une publicité avec la photo de Beth, l’héroïne de la série. Les échecs lui rappellent son père, raconte-t-elle, qui lui avait appris à jouer quand elle était jeune et qu’elle vivait en Lettonie. Il s’y adonnait avec des amis dans un jardin public, tout comme dans les scènes du dernier épisode de la série.Bianca Mitchell, qui a 15 ans et qui vit à Albuquerque, s’est mise à jouer au CP mais a arrêté en classe de cinquième, quand elle est partie un an à Rochester, dans l’État de New York.“J’étais la seule fille à jouer et ça me mettait vraiment mal à l’aise”, admet-elle.À son retour au Nouveau-Mexique, elle n’avait pas envie de reprendre. Mais son état d’esprit a changé en voyant “Le Jeu de la dame”. Apprentie cinéaste, elle est enthousiasmée par la cinématographie et par le personnage de Beth. La série montre les échecs sous un jour “très glamour et luxueux, que les femmes peuvent être des rock stars”, dit-elle. À présent, elle aussi veut devenir grand maître.Lila Field, à gauche, et sa soeur  Rowan Field en 2019; elles ont toutes deux pris part à des tournois internationaux d’échecs.Credit…Carmen FieldLa série a même inspiré des joueuses d’échecs établies. Rowan Field, 12 ans, et sa sœur, Lila, 11 ans, qui vivent à New York (et ont toutes deux auditionné pour le rôle de Beth enfant), sont des juniors bien classées qui ont pris part à des tournois internationaux au Brésil, en Chine, en Espagne et au Chili.Si elles disent ne pas s’identifier à Beth, parce qu’elle est orpheline et souffre d’addictions, elles trouvent que ce personnage “montre qu’il peut y avoir des joueuses d’échecs extrêmement talentueuses”, se félicite Rowan, sa sœur acquiesçant d’un hochement de tête lors d’un appel Zoom. On voir rarement ça dans les séries télévisées ou les films, note Rowan.Pour Marisa Maisano, 13 ans, qui vit à Philadelphie et qui a commencé à jouer aux échecs au CP, Beth est un modèle d’excellence. “Suivre ses progrès au fil du temps et constater à quel point ils sont stupéfiants, et comment elle a réussi, ça a vraiment été une source d’inspiration pour moi”, confie-t-elle. Deux de ses amies qui ne savaient pas jouer aux échecs lui ont demandé de leur apprendre le jeu.Beth Behrs, comédienne et passionnée d’échecs.Credit…Jessica Lehrman for The New York TimesOn n’avait pas vu un engouement pareil pour les échecs depuis 1972, l’année où l’Américain Bobby Fischer est devenu champion du monde en l’emportant sur le Russe Boris Spassky. Une génération de passionnés s’en est suivie mais la vogue est retombée — en grande partie parce que Fischer s’est progressivement enfermé dans la solitude et l’instabilité, tenant des propos antisémites puis renonçant à son titre. Il est trop tôt pour savoir si l’enthousiasme actuel pour ce jeu perdurera et s’il est susceptible d’engendrer de nouvelles Beth Harmon. Mais beaucoup lui ont déjà fait une place dans leurs vies.Pour la comédienne Beth Behrs, savoir jouer aux échecs est une priorité depuis longtemps car son mari Michael Gladis — l’acteur de la série “Mad Men” — est un passionné. Il arrive à ce dernier de jouer plusieurs parties par jour sur Internet. Quand ils se sont mis en couple il y a 10 ans, Behrs a tenté de s’y adonner mais se sentait intimidée.“J’ai mis ça de côté et je ne m’y suis jamais mise”, reconnaît-elle.“Le Jeu de la dame” a tout changé. La série lui a donné confiance et elle trouve le jeu créatif et stimulant.Désormais, Behrs et Gladis se réservent une soirée à deux par semaine pour les échecs. Ils mettent un disque, allument un feu dans la cheminée et commencent la partie.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More