What? Where? When?

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What? Where? When? (Russian "Что? Где? Когда?") is a quiz show which is well known in Russian-language media. It was invented in 1975 by television director Vladimir Voroshilov. During the game teams of 6 people would respond to questions, with 60 seconds to ponder and discuss the question and formulate the answer. The questions are such that one could answer them based on general "school-level" knowledge and some sharp logic. For each correct response the team earns a point.

The game presumed great erudition and vast understanding of modern knowledge, an ability to respond quickly and originally, and occasionally an ability to think outside of the box. From the title of the game one might conclude (erroneously) that to play well one needs to know a large number of specific facts. In fact questions about factual knowledge are uninteresting, and one strives to avoid them.

The game quickly became popular, and a dozen or so of the best players in its TV version have become household names of the same magnitude as pop-music stars: Alexander Drouz, Maxim Potashev, Viktor Sidnev, Alexei Blinov, Nurali Latypov, Fyodor Dvinyatin, Boris Burda, Anatoly Vasserman, and so on.

In addition to the original TV version, which to this date is one of the most popular TV programs in Russia, a competitive variant exists that is played by over 10,000 teams in all countries of the former USSR and in Russian-speaking diasporas around the world, most notably in Israel, Germany, Finland, United States and Canada. Although Russian is the official language of most national and all international tournaments, there are countries (among them Bulgaria, Moldova, Uzbekistan) where non-Russian-language teams are more numerous. Face-to-face World Championships have been held every year since 2002 with corporate sponsorship and under the aegis of governments and National Olympic committees of Russia and Azerbaijan.