The world's first female chess grandmaster, Nona Gaprindashvili, was described in the show's last episode as a female champion who had "never faced men".
Politkovskaya, who spent years reporting for Novaya Gazeta on rights abuses and the Kremlin's war in the North Caucasus region of Chechnya, was shot dead outside her apartment in 2006 at the age of 48.