What? Where? When? to become humanitarian project of South Caucasus

35 teams from post-Soviet space and one each from the UK, Israel, Germany and Finland have arrived in Dubna (Moscow Region) for the 11th championship of the What? Where? When? intellectual game show. Germany was represented by bronze winner Maksim Mozul, Georgia by David Rapava.

Russia had 12 teams. Azerbaijan was represented by champion Balash Kasumov, Nigyar Ibragimova and Faik Guseynova. Armenia was represented by champion Tigran Kocharyan and Levon Nikogosyan. Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan had two teams each: represented by champions under the leadership of Anvar Mukhametkaliyev and Arslan Omadov, Igor Lentsov and Khemra Atabayev.

Rustam Sayid-Aminov (Uzbekistan) won the previous year’s games. Ivan Syomushin’s team won this year’s. Ilya Ber’s team won silver, Maksim Potashyov’s won bronze. Marina Petrova, a correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza, asked the teams to describe the progress of the What? Where? When? movement in the region.
Balash Kasumov, captain of the 2002 champion team, current Azerbaijani champion, noted that the intellectual game in Azerbaijan was state-based. The president supported the first three world championships in Azerbaijan. The Ministry for Youth and Sports and the Ministry for Education support the games. Kasumov noted that there were four shows on Azerbaijani television. He added that they planned to mix the Azerbaijani-language and Russian-language games.
Georgy Bakradze, one of the members of the Georgian national team, said that the country had the highest number of players per capita. He noted that a tour of all Georgian schools had been held for the second time in May 2013. Georgia has held national championships, championships of cities, Championship of the South Caucasus in 2011, participated in by Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, and the Black Sea Open Cup in 2011, participated in by Ukraine, Russia and other states.
Pavel Solakhyan, an Armenian player, confirmed friendly relations between the Armenian and Azerbaijani teams. Concerning festivals in Armenia, he said that there were championships, tournaments in Gyumri and several other tournaments in smaller cities. Solakhyan added that Armenia was planning a higher-scale championship participated in by foreigners.