Igor Sazeev: interesting facts, biography and photos

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Transmission "Who wants to be a millionaire?" is a popular game show that everyone probably knows about. It became the analogue of the English game show called Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? In this program, everyone has the opportunity, thanks to their knowledge and, of course, luck to win 3 million rubles. The show features both celebrities who are regularly invited to star in the popular game, as well as viewers who decide to try their luck in this quiz show. There were lucky ones who managed to win a decent amount of money, and we will talk about one of them in this article. Program in which Igor Sazeev played - "Who wants to become a millionaire?".

History of the appearance of the show

The program was first broadcast on NTV under the title "Oh, lucky!". Then the host was Dmitry Dibrov. The program became very popular, and its ratings increased more and more, but there were no winners who reached the main prize. Later, the program moved to Channel One alreadyunder the more familiar title "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?". The humorist Maxim Galkin was put on the role of the host. This happened in 2001, but in 2008 Dmitry Dibrov again became the host. Since 2005, the amount of winnings has been increased - now the main prize was 3 million rubles.

Game Rules

So, for those who don't know yet, let's recall the rules: in the game, as mentioned earlier, there are only 15 questions. At the same time, they can be associated with completely different areas of knowledge, so the player must truly have a broad outlook, at least in order to reach the main, cherished 15th question.

Each question has 4 possible answers: the player must choose the only correct one. There are three hints: 50 to 50 (when two wrong answers are removed from the list of submitted answers), a call to a friend (everything is clear here anyway), as well as the help of the audience, which should show erudition to help the player who has difficulty in choosing an answer.

Questions are not all difficult. For example, from 1 to 5 are for the most part comic, and it will not be difficult to answer them, although, of course, it’s how lucky. On the 10th there are already questions of an average level of complexity of a general subject. But then it will become much more difficult - here you will need a lot of knowledge in specific industries and you will need to make a lot of efforts to reach the victorious end. In the history of the show, by the way, there were such people, albeit in very small numbers. Let's talk now about the first millionaire who still managed to wingrand prize.

How did the future millionaire get the idea to participate in the game?

He began to notice that while watching this TV show at home, he often answered many questions correctly, while the participants did not know the answer. His wife somehow inspired him to go to Moscow and take the risk of playing in the show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?", where Maxim Galkin then became the host. Igor Sazeev accepted this idea positively and went to the capital to fight to the end for the main prize.

Life to a million

Having received a university education, a participant in the show "KHSM" Igor Sazeev came to work at the Institute of Silicate Chemistry of the USSR Academy of Sciences, where he worked until the mid-90s. Then he took up the layout of books, and later became an editor in a publishing house. At the time of participation in the program, he already had four children from his second marriage, and one from his first. The second wife is Anna, the sons are Yura, Sasha, Timofey and Vasily. The fifth child is the eldest son Maxim from his first marriage.

The start of the road to a million

The place of residence of such a popular once millionaire as Igor Sazeev is St. Petersburg. He is the father of five children. On the program "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" got thanks to "Komsomolskaya Pravda". At first he tried to get through to the program, but nothing worked, then he saw the card numbers in this newspaper. Thanks to this, he was able to get into the listwinners who were sent to the program "Who wants to be a millionaire?". And finally, Igor Sazeev is a millionaire: in that first episode of the television quiz, which began to be broadcast on Channel One, he reached the 15th question.

Preparing for the game

As Igor Sazeev, a millionaire who won the main prize in a TV show, said later, he was preparing more for the qualifying round than for the game. He was afraid that he would not pass it, so he trained very carefully, for example, he studied the history of the Russian Federation. He also studied many reference books. Diligence and the considerable work that he invested in preparing for the game did their job - he held out with honor and dignity throughout the show, answering all questions. He hoped that he would reach the tenth question: then he did not particularly count on more. Despite his confidence in knowledge in various fields, winning in such a popular game was a real surprise for him.

Answers to questions

The only thing he doubted was the question that concerned the work "Eugene Onegin". In a subsequent interview, the player admitted that he actually took him by surprise, since he, of course, read Pushkin's works, but many years ago. He gave confident and clear answers to the rest of the questions, so during this game he showed excellent erudition and endurance.

Igor Sazeev: biography of the lucky one

At the time of winning Igor Sazeev was 39 years old. He was born in 1962, December 21st. Graduated from Leningrad State University, Department of Chemistry. Byprofession - typesetter, makes book layouts. As already noted, he is married and has five sons. His eldest son Maxim from his first marriage lives with his mother in Germany, at the time of the release of the program he had not seen him for two years. Igor Yuryevich Sazeev has a musical education, his childhood dream is to become a composer.

Hobbies of Igor Sazeev

He loves to play sports, in particular, he enjoys playing football and basketball. He thinks he is a gambler. Favorite directors - F. Coppola and A. Tarkovsky. From books prefers science fiction. Lover of music in various genres: listens to both classical and rock, jazz. Favorite singer is Louis Armstrong. Winnie the Pooh is a favorite literary hero (he likes this character for his optimism). He considers hippos to be the most beautiful animals on Earth: he created a whole collection of these toy creatures, of which he has about 100 copies.

How did Sazeev react to his unexpected success?

It was a surprise for him that he had to pay 35% of his winnings, in total it came out 350 thousand rubles, which he had to pay to the state treasury. According to the rules, it is necessary to transfer part of the funds won, which are collected in the form of tax and go to the state.

How did you manage the winnings?

The date of March 12, 2001 was significant for him, because on that day he not only won the biggest prize in the game "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?", but also becameits first winner. Thus, it is forever recorded in the history of the most popular game. He disposed of the money as follows: first he bought a bicycle for his younger children, spent part of it looking for his eldest son, whom he had not seen for quite a long time, went on a romantic trip with his current wife to Austria and Italy, bought a Renault car, bought a computer, and also rested in the Crimea with the whole family. Also, part of the money was invested in repairs.

Besides this, Igor wanted to open his own business and thus invested part of the money in it, but went bankrupt. While in Germany, he visited with his eldest son Maxim as part of a tourist group in Belgium and Holland.

Happy broadcast episode

The premiere of the updated version of the program, now broadcast under the title "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?", took place on February 19, 2001, and it was shown on the air only on March 12. This happened for the reason that the audience might have doubts about honesty, since in the very first issue Igor Sazeev won a million. Then, with his victory, he shocked the organizers by winning the main prize so easily. He received a prize on the air of Good Morning: then he was handed a suitcase with money. After the transfer, instead of cash, they presented him with a card, opened a bank account for him.

Gambler

Igor Sazeev considers himself a gambler, ready to take risks. Before that happy game, he decided for himself that in the event that he was lucky to reach the fifteenth question, he wouldanswer it even if you are not sure of the answer. At the very least, he will be the first person on this show to take the risk of reaching the end rather than taking the amount due to a lack of confidence in the last answer.

By the way, at the end he was asked a question about the teachings of Zen, namely, to which direction of religious philosophy it belongs. Sazeev was helped to win in the transfer of his knowledge, because he is a person with a broad outlook, very well-read, erudite and intelligent, but the fact that the questions, as he later claimed, came across convenient for him, also played a role. They weren't all easy, but for the most part they were easy for him to answer.

Bad business investment

After Sazeev got a decent win for those times, albeit not in the amount of 1 million rubles, but 650 thousand after taxes, he began to think about how best to spend the money. His acquaintances then persuaded him to invest in a business, namely in a trucking company. He spent a considerable amount on this business - about 250 thousand rubles. Then, in an interview, he admitted that he knew little about business and then took a chance, trusting his comrades. But his acquaintances simply let him down, and the investments burned down. Afterwards, of course, he regretted his decision.

Renault car

Igor spent part of the winnings on a Renault car: it was maintained, it was already 11 years old at the time of purchase, and the mileage was 130,000 kilometers. Although the minivan was old, but the car was then very necessary for a large familyIgor Sazeev. The joy, however, from buying a car was not long, after some time serious problems began with it. First one part, then another began to fail. Spare parts for a foreign car are expensive, so we had to spend a lot on repairs.

Igor Sazeev: second game

After several years after the resounding victory, Igor Sazeev was again called to the program "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?": Then a special issue was organized. The second time, however, he failed to break the record. He settled on the amount of 32 thousand rubles, having incorrectly answered the 13th question, as a result, a fireproof amount remained. The transfer was charitable, and Igor Sazeev sent the funds won, albeit small ones, to the Novgorod region for the construction of the Church of the Prophet Elijah.

Other winners of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

The Chudinovsky family became the next millionaires after Igor Sazeev in 2003. By an interesting coincidence, the second winner, Yuri, studied at the same school as Sazeev. In 2006, Svetlana Yaroslavtseva from the Moscow region won 3 million rubles, and then Timur Budaev, who lives in Pyatigorsk, won the same amount in 2010.