Tbilisi hosts popular quiz game’s largest world championship

Tbilisi will host the largest World Championship event for the popular "What? Where? When?” quiz game for three days starting this Friday, with diverse side-events complementing the main competition featuring top international players and teams.

More than 1,000 participants and visitors are expected to flock to Georgia’s capital city during the contest, with 60 teams from 25 countries including Russia, Israel and the United Kingdom contributing to the Championship roster.

Co-chair of the tournament’s Organising Committee and host of the game’s Georgian championship Giorgi Mosidze underlined the scope of the event in his announcement:

This will be the most representational and large-scale event in the history of the World Championships … Georgia is hosting [such] a high-level intellectual [competition] event for the first time and I promise to let it play out at an advanced level,” Mosidze said while speaking about the contest.

Georgia will field four teams in the competition, including one side led by David Rapava that reached the final stage of the 2012 Championship in Russia.

Co-chair of the tournament’s Organising Committee Giorgi Mosidze (C) hosts the game’s Georgian championship. Photo by T. Korakhashvili.

Additional events during the three-day competition include a stage of poker tournament among the quiz game players as well as matches of American intellectual game Jeopardy, before the main occasion concludes on November 15.

Tbilisi was awarded the right to hold the World Championship stage in a 2012 decision by the International Association of the quiz game and will host the tournament with support from the Tbilisi Municipality and Sport and Youth Affairs Ministry of Georgia.

The first edition of the now-annual World Championship was held in 2002 in Azerbaijan’s capital Baku, with Israel, Ukraine and Russia among subsequent hosts.

Televised in a number of countries, local championships of the "What? Where? When?” game enjoyed special popularity in the former Soviet states, with professional and amateur leagues running annual competitions in Georgia.