The pilot of ChGK aired on September 4, 1975, and it was initially called Family Quiz: What, where, when. In the early days of ChGK, the game bore no resemblance to today's game, in that, rather than to have 6 players gather around a round table and discuss for either 20 or 60 seconds, two rounds were taped in the families' homes.

Only a year later, the roulette appeared, but in 1976's ChGK, the roulette had a two-way arrow and designated 2 players. The first player was asked to answer immediately, and if the first player answered incorrectly, or declined to do so, the second player would be asked instead, neither one having any time to think. Everyone also played for themselves. Also, in the first 2 seasons of the show, the questions were written by the first executive producer, Vladimir Voroshilov (who was forbidden to appear on air due to political disagreements), along with an editorial staff.

Three of the mainstays of modern TV-ChGK first appeared in 1977, the 60 second discussion time, the owl as a symbol of the game and the question roulette. For the first time, viewers were supplying questions, with fact-checking taking place beforehand. At first, the program was taped in a bar in the Ostankino district of Moscow. Then, in the 1980s, the show was taped in a mansion on Bolshaya Nikitskaya.

Already, long before there was an organized scene for competitive ChGK, people started forming their own clubs for practicing prior to auditioning for the show as early as 1979. Also, the use of the term experts to designate the contestants on the show began to arise around that time. In the late 1970s as well as the early 1980s, the prizes for the game contestants were books.

The TV show's growth in popularity was also the catalyst for competitive play, where club-based teams began to play not against the audience, but between themselves. In Soviet times, competitive ChGK was very decentralized. Ant the time, tournaments were often very local in scope, with tournaments larger in scope than a city or, in rural areas, raions, being uncommon.

By the 1980s, the "club of experts" (comprising past and present contestants) started operating on the principles of playing on a large arena, with the experts of the day seated around the central table, and other people in the hall. It was also during the 1980s that foreign teams appeared in countries such as Poland, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, France, the United States and Sweden.

The current victory condition in TV-ChGK was first implemented in 1982, in that 6 points became necessary for a side to win a game.

In 1987, the first international games were played, a series of three USSR-Bulgaria games played in Sofia.

A key date, which transformed competitive ChGK from a decentralized activity into a formally regulated activity, was August 1989, the first congress of the International Association of Clubs (IAC, better known by its Russian initials, MAK), held in Mariupol. In 1989, the first ChGK Championship of the USSR was held as well, marking the beginnings of organized large-scale competitive ChGK.

Starting in 1990, the game began to be taped in its current location, the hunting lodge in Neskuchny Garden in Moscow.

Immediately after the downfall of the Soviet Union, the game changed from being an intellectual club to being an intellectual casino, with the roulette having black and red sectors. Each question had its own value in rubles in the early 1990s, and the green sector, which later became the 0 sector, carried the highest value at the time.

Also, the "death rule", under which an expert was banned from further play upon losing a game, was softened in 1995 to its current version of a 3-season ban from play. However, prior to the repeal, there were 3 methods for an expert to get an exemption.

The first method, winning the Crystal Owl and, at the time, red jackets, allowed a player to remain in the club regardless of any future performance as an expert on the set.

The second method involved paying the house the full amount of for the right to play an additional question. If the experts won, they would remain in the club, but they left the set empty-handed otherwise. However, if the viewers won, the experts were banned from further play as well. Finally, the losing team could request a rematch.

The peak of the casino era of the show was 1994-1998, where contestants were able to place bets up to the cost of the sector. Especially in 1996 through 1998, the composition of teams at the final was unpredictable since priority was given to the experts who earned the most money throughout the year.

Finally, during the Asian crisis of 1999, the show was suspended for half a year due to financial issues. When the show returned on air in December 1999, it returned with changes that led to a decrease in the emphasis on gambling.