SUKHUM -- An online chess-tournament is being held in Abkhazia for the first time. One day ago, 25 chess-players from Abkhazia, the Krasnodar Territory, Daghestan and Adyghea took part.

“The online chess-tournament ‘Abkhazia Open’ will be held daily,” said Konstantin Tuzhba, President of the Chess Federation of Abkhazia.

Daria Papba | Ekho Kavkaza -- World Theatre Day is celebrated on 27 March. But in conditions of mass-quarantine, due to the epidemic of coronavirus, theatres had to look for new ways to celebrate, excluding direct involvement of the audience. The Samson Chanba Abkhazian State Drama Theatre celebrated its professional holiday by launching the Radio-Theatre. As part of this project, a series of lectures will be published that tells about the Theatre’s past and present.

Celebrated soprano Hibla Gerzmava makes a long-awaited return to London to give a recital with her long-time pianist partner Ekaterina Ganelina.

Hibla Gerzmava has enjoyed a meteoric rise on the international opera stage since winning the Grand Prix at the prestigious International Tchaikovsky Competition. Her brilliant technique and luminous voice have captivated audiences at Teatro alla Scala, Zürich Opera House, Bolshoi Theatre, Opéra national de Paris and the Royal Opera House. In 2019-20 she returns to the New York Metropolitan Opera to appear as Liu in Puccini’s Turandot.

The evening in memory of Saria Lakoba is a joint-project of RUSDRAM with the Nestor Lakoba Museum and the Ministry of Culture of Abkhazia. 

SUKHUM -- An evening in memory of Saria Lakoba will be held on December 5 in RUSDRAM said Irakli Khintba, director-general of the Fazil Iskander Russian Drama Theatre, in an interview with Radio Sputnik.

The film-exposé "Belshazzar’s Feast, or Night with Stalin", based on the work of Fazil Iskander "Sandro from Chegem", saw the light of day on 1 June 1989.

Shooting of the film began in Abkhazia, but the main scene, the feast of the Supreme Leader of the People and his acolytes, where the tables were bursting with refreshments, while the dances and songs of the Abkhazian artists forced applause from the managers of the Soviet Union as they stood on their feet, was filmed in one of the studios of Mos-Film.