“What? Where? When?” is a game outside politics

Marina Petrova exclusively to Vestnik Kavkaza

This year is the 38th anniversary of the TV-show “What? Where? When?” During this time the popular intellectual game has turned from an elite club for a few intellectuals into an international movement. “What? Where? When” is played by people all over the world. On September 14-15 the Moscow region town of Dubna hosted the 11th World Sporting “What? Where? When?” Championships, where teams from Russia, the U.S.A., Germany, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, as well as Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Armenia took part. Vestnik Kavkaza found out how the international intellectual movement has been developing in the countries of the South Caucasus.

Balash Kasumov, the world champion of “What? Where? When?”-2002 (Azerbaijan)

We are lucky in Azerbaijan in developing the movement of “What? Where? When?” We are supported by officials. The first three world championships in Azerbaijan were held with the support of the president of the country. Today we are supported by the Ministry of Youth and Sports and the Ministry of Education. There are many interesting festivals in Baku. Today we have begun developing the movement all over Azerbaijan, we have Azerbaijani-speaking clubs, we play in regions. I think we are on the right path; and we are a generation which has certain experience and we should transfer this experience to those who are only just coming to the movement.

We also have the TV-version of “What? Where? When?” in Russian. We have four shoots in Azerbaijani, pilot shoots. In the future we plan to combine the Azerbaijani-speaking and the Russian-speaking versions.

We always visit our friends in Georgia at the festival of the Black Sea Open Cup. It is interesting to participate in it. We visit the world championships, we try to visit stages of the World Cup. We took part in the Championships of Asia in Uzbekistan.

“What? Where? When?” festivals always gather all the countries of the South Caucasus. And this is good. I hope in the future “What? Where? When?” will play an integrating role in the region. We hope for this. “What? Where? When?” is a game outside politics, and we are happy about this. We understand this and do our best for it to be so.

“What? Where? When?” teaches us a lot: teamwork, making decisions, working quickly. Our minister of education, Mikhail Jabarov, is the first Azerbaijani intellectual who played in the Moscow TV-club. Mikhail helps us very much today. In 1997 Mikhail Jabarov was the absolute champion of the CIS in the TV-show “Brain-Ring.” We feel his help and support, and we are grateful to him. Today he is a minister, and we are happy with him in this position.

Georgy Bakradze, participant of the World “What? Where? When?” Championships 2013 (Georgia)

First of all, in Georgia we have the biggest number of teams per capita. We have a lot of tournaments. For example, we have children's tournaments where representatives of all regions, all schools of Georgia play. We held it for the second time this May. Moreover, we have the championship of Georgia, the winter championships of Georgia, tournaments of various towns, including Tbilisi championships. We also have the Championships of the South Caucasus, which by 2011 was held only between Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, but in 2012 it became open, and teams from Ukraine, Russia, and other countries come to it. We love “What? Where? When?”

Teams from Azerbaijan and Armenia come to us and always play together. As far as I remember, in general we usually have 10 teams from each republic. We connect them. It would be great to hold the World Championships in Tbilisi.

Pavel Solakhyan, participant of the World “What? Where? When?” Championships 2013 (Armenia)

The history of sporting “What? Where? When?” in Armenia is about 20 years. This World Championship is our 11th, and our teams have been taking part in them since the third or the fourth ones, when we got the opportunity. As for festivals in Armenia, of course we have the championships of the country, traditional festivals in Gyumri, and several tournaments in smaller towns. Moreover, in the very near future we plan to organize a major festival which would gather teams not only from the CIS but also from other foreign countries.

Armenian teams have several times been “What? Where? When?” champions of the South Caucasus. We meet teams from Azerbaijan only on neutral territory. It doesn’t prevent relations between the teams of the countries, but players cannot get into the other country without problems for political reasons. However, the goal of intellectuals is to connect our nations, and we hope that some day there will be an opportunity for the teams to play tournaments on the territories of their countries without problems.