Why the Crystal Owl Feels So Cozy at KBSU: Celebrating the Anniversary of the Intellectual Game “What? Where? When?”

There is a good tradition at the Kabardino-Balkarian State University named after Kh.M. Berbekov – every year they hold the intellectual game “ChGK”. For the fourth year already, on the initiative of the Deputy Director of the Center for Scholarship Programs and Financial Support for Students Ibragim Kalabekov, the event has been held with great success. This is an analogue of the legendary TV show “What? Where? When?”, which has been broadcast on Channel One for half a century, invariably gathering an excited multi-million audience in front of the screens.

As a student at KBSU, Ibragim himself became the owner of the prestigious “Crystal Owl”. Having got a job at his native university, after a break in holding the game at the university, he decided to revive this wonderful tradition.

The first season of the game, which started in 2022, was a real surprise for Ibrahim: 12 teams applied to participate. The event decorations fully corresponded to the atmosphere of «What? Where? When?»: from a round table and a spinning top to an hourglass and mysterious black boxes. Experienced university teachers, as well as his mother, a long-time fan of the game, helped Ibrahim compose questions for the first season.

«The first experience, although not without excitement, turned out to be successful. Not everything turned out exactly as in the TV version, but the main thing is that the teams showed a high level of involvement,» recalls Ibrahim Kalabekov.
The winners of the first seasons were teams from the Social and Humanitarian Institute, the Department of Research and Innovation Activities, and the KBSU Library. According to the current rules, a team that wins three times in a row receives a «Crystal Owl» for eternal storage.

Ibrahim fully shares the opinion of TV viewer player Alexey Ivanov that the creator of the game Vladimir Voroshilov invented a «perpetual motion machine».

«Interest in the game never fades, because the questions are always extraordinary and come from all over the world. And experts brilliantly cope with them in a minute. A huge audience eagerly watches this process,» Ibrahim explains the secret of the unfading popularity of «What? Where? When?». He himself is its devoted fan and admires the achievements of Fyodor Dvinyatin, the owner of four «Crystal Owls».
But one day Ibrahim was able to surpass his idol, albeit from a distance.

Once the host asked a question based on a quote by Stefan Zweig:

«In Spain lie two people who met in life and liked each other, and after death entered into a fierce and meaningless argument. Who are they?»
The answer suggested by Fyodor Dvinyatin turned out to be incorrect. Ibrahim, to his surprise and joy, correctly identified that the conversation was about Christopher Columbus and Amerigo Vespucci.

Today, Ibrahim Kalabekov himself is at the helm of the intellectual game, albeit within the university community. His version of «What? Where? When?» has won recognition and gathered a loyal audience, demonstrating the potential for further growth and development.