By the end of 2000, Vladimir Voroshilov, the original executive producer decided to wager the future of the show on whether the viewers or the experts would win that year's final. Ultimately, the experts won the final, and so, the show was kept alive, but he died 3 months later. He was succeeded by his stepson, Boris Kryuk, as host of the game.

One of the two major changes Boris made to the TV show was the elimination of the gambling elements. The other was changing the old 0 sector, which consisted of questions from the game-makers, into today's 13th sector. Cash prizes for experts were significantly reduced in scope, while the viewers were the ones competing for the cash prizes from that point onward.

From 2001 to 2007, viewers' cash prizes were determined by telephone vote. The ruble value of the prize was equal to the difference between votes for the question and votes against the question. If the question garnered more votes against it than votes for it, the viewer didn't earn anything.

In 2002, the yearly schedule expanded from 2 yearly series of games to 4 series of 4 games (5 for winter), resulting in 17 yearly games. Which was not expanded until 2015, when all series became 5 games long. Along with the expansion of the schedule, crystal and diamond owls became, once again, available for viewers to win.

Also in 2002, the first edition of the ChGK Worlds in the competitive version of the game was held in Baku, under the auspices of the IAC. Other major international ChGK tournaments followed suit soon thereafter, such as the Provinces' Cup. Several countries started organizing their own national championships around the same time.

Starting in 2008, the viewers who wrote the questions answered incorrectly by the experts started earning prizes according to the points scored by the viewers in a game. The prizes so awarded were raised in 2013.

In 2009, the ChGK Worlds were canceled because of financial difficulties caused by the recession.

Then, in 2010, the infamous rematch rule was repealed, because of its inconsistent use and teams were also hesitant to invoke it. Each team captain could invoke it once, but the stakes doubled when invoked.

However, 2016 marked the beginning of disagreements between the TV and competitive versions of the game, over the politics of hosting a sponsored game for Russian troops stationed in Syria. At the time, the IAC was strongly opposed to Russian intervention in Syria. Yet, since the TV version was run by Channel One, in turn controlled by the VGTRK, the TV producers had no choice but to toe the government's line.

The foray of ChGK into Syria also marked the beginning of the politicization of ChGK, which only intensified by 2022 over the war in Ukraine.

In 2019, a major scandal erupted when Alexander Druz, one of the most iconic ChGK players, was accused of cheating in a different game show, which led to him retaining his seat on the IAC board, but at the cost of disbanding its ethics committee. The disbanding of the ethics committee was only one of the decisions from the IAC management that the competitive ChGK community was outraged.

In 2020, the pandemic forced the IAC to cancel the ChGK Worlds once again. Once the lockdowns ended, the IAC ceased licensing tournaments, among other questionable decisions made by an autocratic management. Combined, these decisions led to the formation of a new international federation for competitive ChGK, the IAMG (or International Association of Mind Games, also known under its Russian acronym of MAII) in 2021.

By the time the war in Ukraine started, the program underwent significant changes again. First, games were no longer aired live due to concerns over players using their airtime to stage protests. Second, it became possible to send a question for the 13th sector at any time. Finally, some experts began boycotting the show rather than protesting during the games themselves.

Another impact of the war in Ukraine in competitive ChGK was the IAMG canceling the ChGK Worlds until the war ends. Rapidly the IAMG proved anti-war and began banning pro-war players from entering IAMG-sanctioned tournaments.