Every year, starting from 2010, the State Literary and Memorial Museum-Reserve of A.P. Chekhov “Melikhovo”, with the support of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Moscow Region, holds the International Competition of Reading Works named after. A.P. Chekhov among young actors and students of theater universities in Russia and other countries. The qualifying rounds take place in several stages, and the climax is a gala concert with the awarding of the competition winners on the writer’s birthday on January 29 at the Melikhovo estate.
Every year a special theme is determined for the competition: “Chekhov and Goncharov”, “Chekhov and Kazakov”, “Chekhov and Bunin”, “Chekhov and Dostoevsky”, “Chekhov and Ostrovsky”. Thus, in the museum-reserve, in addition to Chekhov’s stories, works by other classics of Russian literature are also heard, which makes the competition more vivid and memorable.
Young actors and final year students of theater universities who have the disciplines “Stage Speech” and “Artistic Word” in their program are invited to participate in the Competition. The duration of presentations on the works declared in the topic of the Authors' Competition is no more than 12 minutes. The criteria for evaluating the “Artistic Word” are: the choice of work and its complexity; mastery of the art of composition; the presence of a clear plot, climax and denouement; preservation of the author's style and internal intonation; completeness of disclosure of the work; brightness of artistic images; intonation variety; artistry, charm etc.
The permanent participants of the Competition are the country's leading theater universities, including the Russian Institute of Theater Arts - GITIS, the Higher Theater School named after M.S. Shchepkin, the Theater Institute named after B, Shchukin, the All-Russian State University of Cinematography named after S.A. Gerasimova, Yaroslavl State Theater Institute, Yekaterinburg State Theater Institute, Kazan Theater School, including international ones, Belarusian State University of Culture and Art, Kazakh National Academy of Arts named after. T.K. Zhurgenova.

During the Competition, more than 800 applications for participation were submitted from Russia, Bulgaria, Belarus, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Hungary.
The organizers of the Competition provide non-resident participants with accommodation and food for the duration of the Competition.