What? Where? Never again

The game is 50 years old. As a transition to cash rates, the death of Voroshilov and scandals shook the club of experts, and the war finished it

Game for books

On September 4, at countless tables around the world, a toast will be raised, and someone will sing a piece of the text of Modest Tchaikovsky to the melody of his older brother. No wonder the phrase “What is our life? Game!" Hells of tens of thousands of people became the life of the loan. And the players have an occasion: September 4, 1975, 50 (fifty!) Years ago, the first program “What? Where? When?"

Before my eyes, a round table is a top, and Richard Strauss is in your ears? The wrong answer! For the first time, it was a competition of families, Ivanovs and Kuznetsov, each of which was filmed separately. Yes, and the “Face” of the Youth edition of the Central Television of the USSR Alexander Maslyakov was broadcast. And what about the author? The author - Vladimir Voroshilov - was in disgrace.

In his auction program, he dared to put in the form of lots the songs of not members of creative unions, but some kind of awkward self-proclaimed poets-composers with Hitians-Harmoses. And so, after all, to blades, and before, God forgive me, you can get some Vysotsky!

Voroshilov did not satisfy the format of the “family quiz”, but, like Sphinx - ancient fun, ask questions! - He decided to continue. And he began to grope for the image of a new program. So gradually the six appeared at the table, the top (first pointed to the answering, then to the question) and most importantly - a minute of discussion, "the birth of an unknown from the famous."

Then Voroshilov was lucky: the best, probably, a television operator of that time, Alexander Fuchs, collaborated with him. He perfectly understood the director’s plans, felt the game and managed to pull out this minute with his heavy betakam (camera), this discovery on the screens. It turned out - it is beautiful, interesting, I also wanted to do this.

I want? Get down! In universities, at the factories, in the KB, following the example of “experts” (this term, by the way, appeared already in 1979 and competed with the already famous “connoisseurs” from the Soviet criminal series), lovers began to crush their brains. The clubs of players-players were often organized with the support of the Society of Book Libes. What is not surprising, because a member of the Board of the All -Union such society and the director of the Moscow House of the Book of Tamara Vishnyakov since 1979 represented scarce prizes to the program participants. And according to the “good grandmother distributing the book”, many viewers of that time are still nostalgic, considering this the top of the program.

And the program improved: the game to six points, musical pauses (by the way, with numbers unprecedented on Soviet TV), “black box”, rewards to connoisseurs. The presenter appeared in the credits: "Vladimir Voroshilov was broadcast." The places of filming were changing: the Bar of the Ostankino television studio, the youth club on Herzen, the Source Center. The main change occurred in 1986, October 24: the game began to be aircraft.

Game for money

The energy of the live broadcast - and it is undoubtedly felt in comparison with the “conservatives”, as she called the transfer in the recording of Voroshilov - did “what? Where? When?" Favorite sight of the Soviet intelligentsia. Which, of course, also expanded the contingent of playing outside the “TV”. But this is with the “eyes” of Fuchs and with the voice and thought of Voroshilov it is interesting to observe the birth of new knowledge, but you can’t see from the auditorium very much. And I myself would like to try to give birth to new knowledge. So they began to play in clubs several teams at the same time. Odessa residents claim that in their club "Erudit" such games have been held since 1983. The option over time began to be called the sports “What? Where? When?" (Sport-CGC).

Undoubtedly, the mass movement needs organization. And control. In 1989, the Constituent Congress of the International Association of Clubs “What? Where? When?" The television group was riding to the MAC, the organizer of the Mariupol event Andrei Kozlov soon joined her. The regional ties of the MAC allowed to attract new participants to television projects, the mass television project "Brain-Ring"-to recruit new persons in the main intellectual program.

Vladimir Voroshilov did not care about the public movement, he did television art and developed his brainchild. Fortunately, the program finally found the house. A rented hunting house in the Neskuchny Garden is a place for filming to this day. The entourage remains unchanged: the cramped gaming room, which, because of the black walls and numerous mirrors, seems large, a chandelier with monitors, stuffed with equipment, a mirror table, chairs around it, a gong in the opening. And music: here, in a hunting house for the first time a prologue to the game and a fragment of Herman’s aria sounded.

Voroshilov did not stop at the interior change. The television program, in his opinion, should follow the time and even ahead of it. He refuses the prizes-book-a shortage of the past-and begins to play the deficit actual, for money.

This happened in 1990. And the intellectual club has become an intellectual casino, a place where they "earn their mind." Casino so casino, therefore, red jackets, then tuxedo and evening dresses, no carnivals, bets, including their money. Not everyone liked such a U -turn. The Internet is full of replicas: "After books - I do not look."

But what is the matter to Vladimir Voroshilov to the conservative public, he is looking for a passion that will spill from the television screen. Money, and even his own, according to his plan, had to strengthen this passion. However, it turned out the other way around: experts became more calculating. But Voroshilov is more furious.

Some archival programs show that he is annoyed by the game “For Money”, and not “For the Game”.

Voroshilov adds discomfort to the players: he disbandes the usual six, selected just according to the principle of coherence, and puts a random set at the table, often deliberately pushing the conflicting. It didn’t work out: with the support of the rest of the television group, the game was returned to the game with the usual teams.

Game for the name

The anniversary season of the 25th anniversary of the program was announced as the "Last Gastroly". Voroshilov said that in the event of a loss of experts at the final game, he “will close the bench”, “put a point”. Experts won. But the finale was not at all cheerful: such a sad music sounded ...

The second 25th anniversary began with the tragedy. 70-year-old Vladimir Voroshilov died suddenly.

The tragedies followed the scandals. Even before the funeral, the official widow, the deputy Voroshilova on television and MAC Natalia Stetsenko announced the moratorium on holding games on the sports version of the ChGK. The right to the trading sign “What? Where? When?" Urgently re -registered from the MAC of the ChGK to the television group. Attempts by individual fairness of justice to translate the name to the rank of public property and free use for the sports option were defeated, including by an argument that the game could not exist without television. Representatives of most clubs agreed with this. The conflict turned into an inactive phase and began to be forgotten over time.

The game continued. And in the sports version - since 2002, the world championships even began to be held (the latter was held in 2019). And in television. Boris Kryuk, the son of the widow of Voroshilov Natalia Stutsenko, became the new presenter and director. With the new presenter, the game remained ... old. If Voroshilov constantly searched for something, changed, improved, then in the 21st century “What? Where? When?" Failed. Even the operators, students and assistants of Alexander Fuchs, who tragically passed away in the same 2001, are removed according to the samples of the past. Little things, such as the introduction of a dubious Internet sector, do not change the impressions of “frozen”. Well, perhaps the experts were deprived of the opportunity to “earn money with their minds”: cash payments to the players were liquidated.

The second twenty -five -five transmission that began with a scandal continues to be full of them. There is a sexual scandal with the Abjuz of minors, and the cheatics of the “stars”, and “tour” in a military group in Syria.

Stormitis and the world of sports ChGK. The television group registered in its name (LLC of the Game-TV television company) also the “Sports” trademark? Where? When? ”And forbade to hold competitions without its permission. This was outraged by the game community. The International Association of Intellectual Games was created. Mai began to carry out its own coordination and methodological work, rank the teams in its own ranking. That is, to replace the poppy, which de facto stopped work (with the exception of formidable letters from her President Kozlov). The answer was not long in coming: MAIA in the Russian Federation was recognized as an undesirable organization, and participation in its activities could have legal consequences. But the number of tournaments (full -time and correspondence synchronous) outside Russia and their quality only increased. The practice of games with the help of the Internet is also fixed. Note that players are especially popular with Ukrainian Internet sites.

Game for life

The aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine could not but affect the game community. Mai made an anti -war statement. Her general meeting forever disqualified the active propagandists of the war Anatoly Wasserman and Maxim Potashyv. In their games, teams outside the Russian Federation actively use issues from Ukrainian authors.

And what about the "television"? It is wrong, of course. With any honorary diplomas (Boris Kryuk) and thanks (Andrei Kozlov and the entire “Games-TV” team) from the president not to cover the decline of the program. Since April 2022, the program has been entering. Her frontmen and front -ends no longer cause rampant enthusiasm. Still: the first master is convicted of cheating, the third is not only not condemned, but supports him; The second appears to the mobilized in the war with a fiery speech; The fourth goes to Syria and the annexed Crimea and in every possible way promotes the policy of the country's leadership; The fifth, Elizaveta Ovzeenko-left the program due to the policy of the channel on which she goes. This was done by many other pretty participants in the game and potential idols of the public like Denis Galiakberov.

And the popular, favorites of the audience Ilya Novikov and Rovshan Askerov, if not going into the subtleties of formulations, simply expelled. They remained non -replaced: those who are not embarrassing the participation in the program on the channel that supports the war.

The sad anniversary comes out. “Golden”, but not “shine”. The game is mothballed, and in the literal sense of the word, it became “canned food”, that is, it goes out in the record: suddenly these non-reproaching will still make a demarche on the air. The current “Heroes of yesterday” are compromised, others are expelled or moved away from shame, the new ones are not possible.

But the game lives. Lives in hundreds of tournaments, unquenchable television companies. He lives the energy of thousands of people whose life is a game.