Friends!!!

Grandpa Frog, who is a member of the GoMagic group on the OGS, is hosting the February (2024) "Baba Yaga" tournament with the help of GoMagic.

Georgy Milyar as Baba Yaga.

Baba Yaga is a mysterious or ambiguous character from Slavic folklore who has two opposing roles. In some motifs she is described as a repulsive or fierce-looking old woman who roasts and eats children, while in others she is a sweet old woman who helps the hero.

In East Slavic fairy tales, Baba Yaga is an old woman with supernatural powers and associated with the world of the dead, as evidenced by her appearance, place of residence and main functions. Her characteristic features are old age, decrepitude and ugliness (nose in the ceiling), emphasized female physiology (breasts hanging over the threshold). An important feature of Baba-Yaga is her one-legged or bone (less often - iron, wooden) leg, i.e. dead, devoid of flesh, which brings the character closer to other one-legged creatures of world mythology, having snake origin. There is a reason to consider Baba Yaga blind, as she recognizes the approach of a man by his smell. Baba Yaga's permanent attributes are a bread shovel, on which she tries to roast the hero, an oven, and a stupa, in which she moves with the help of a pestle.

Georgy Milyar as Baba Yaga.

Baba Yaga's dwelling is a cramped hut, which stands on poles or goat (goat, sheep) legs or on one leg, sometimes propped up with pancakes. The bird legs of the hut have no definite explanation, their erection to tree trunks with roots, on which forest benches were placed, is doubtful. The fence around the hut consists of human bones and skulls. Baba-Yaga lies in the hut on the floor, on a bench or on the stove, occupying almost the entire space (resting her head on one wall and her feet on the other), which brings her dwelling closer to a coffin, and Baba-Yaga herself to a dead man. The hut is located on the border of the forest, being the only passageway between the human and the otherworld ("Tridevyatiye Tsarstvo"), where the hero of the fairy tale must get to solve a magical problem. The hut has its doors turned towards the forest, so to enter, the hero must turn its front part towards himself with the help of a special formula, and also pass a test with Baba Yaga, who at first intends to eat him. But the hero demonstrates correct behavior, wins, and humbles Baba-Yaga, who after that is forced to help him.

Baba Yaga's dwelling is a hut on chicken legs.

This is what a hut on chicken legs could really be like.

The best embodied the image of Baba Yaga in feature films was Soviet actor Georgy Frantsevich Milyar.

Georgy Milyar

His most famous role - Baba Yaga - he played in Alexander Rowe's movie "Vasilisa the Beautiful". On it tried many actresses, including Faina Ranevskaya. But the director refused to all: he was afraid that Baba Yaga in their performance will not be scary enough, will not scare the audience. Then she volunteered to play Milyar: "It is not a female role. Tell me, what actress will allow to make herself so scary on the screen? And I'll bear it all."

Georgy Milyar as Baba Yaga.

The artist carefully prepared for the role of Baba Yaga. He watched how to move and talk to older women. Milyar recalled: "Abundant material gave me a neighbor in the communal room. Character she was terrible, squabbling, she had to be sure someone to quarrel." Imitated the actor and one old lady, which he saw in Yalta.

The role of Baba Yaga glorified Milyar. After "Vasilisa the Beautiful" he played this character several times in other movies-fairy tales Rowe. The actor called Baba Yaga his favorite hero.

After the role of Baba Yaga Georgi Milyaru began to offer only negative characters. The actor wrote: "I work in the field of fairy tales, I represent all the unclean force in the Soviet cinema".

You can watch the movie "Vasilisa the Beautiful" here:

And now about pleasant things, about prizes! First of all, each participant of this unofficial tournament will receive an unofficial prize - a Chinese Go book in electronic form. The link to the book will be posted in the tournament chat for a few days after the tournament starts. Since the chat room is periodically cleared of messages, the link will be removed after some time. If you haven't had a chance to download the book, post in the tournament chat and I'll post the link again.

Second, GoMagic.org has generously sponsored prizes for participants of the unofficial tournaments that I host.These prizes come in the form of coupons, which can be used towards the purchase of GoMagic courses and memberships. In each group of our the third round, participants ranking 1st and 2nd will be awarded these valuable prizes.As the host, I will personally deliver the coupons to the winners via private message on OGS

Something about the regulations. Please note that each move adds 1 day to the time, but no more than 3 days. Time is suspended for the weekend. This means that you have to make one move per day.

    Regards,
    Grandpa Frog.

P.S. James Bond will return in the movie "From Russia with love"~~

Tournaments Go Magic will continue in March with the "Jazz Standard - Mack the Knife" tournament.