You’ve probably already heard of Netflix series, The Queen’s Gambit, which follows the life of American chess prodigy Beth Harmon in her quest to take on the world’s top Grandmasters, all while battling her inner demons.

When Harmon finally faces the Soviet heavyweights in Moscow for the first time, the camera pans briefly to a female Soviet chess player, Nona Gaprindashvili. While Harmon’s story is fictional, Gaprindashvili is a real chess player from Georgia who became the Women’s World Chess Champion five times. In the show, Gaprindashvili is introduced by the commentator as “a female world champion, who has never faced men”, something that surprised the real Gaprindashvili, who was no stranger to playing chess against male opponents. 

To read Bristolian journalist Fatima Hudoon's whole article in The Calvert Journal please click here