The intellectual game as a factor in the formation of a harmoniously developed personality of a university student: the case of the championships on “What? Where? When?”

The study attempts to analyze the influence of intellectual games held at the university on the formation of a harmoniously developed student's personality. The author for three years organized and held the annual championships on the intellectual game “What? Where? When?” at the Russian Open Academy of Transport (the Russian University of Transport). After each championship, a survey was conducted to determine how much participation in the tournament allows students to improve or develop useful personality traits. In the course of the research, the author comes to the conclusion that participation in intellectual tournaments contributes to the formation of the student's personality qualities, such as the ability to set a goal and achieve it in a time-limited environment, to work in a team, responsibility, creative thinking. The experience of holding the championships on «What? Where? When» at the Russian Open Academy of Transport and the data of the conducted research allow us to draw a conclusion about a unique intellectual resource that can be used in the process of forming a harmoniously developed personality of a technical university student.