Breakdown of Вчера мы говорили о судьбе Чехова.
мы
we
говорить
to speak, to talk
о
about (о, об, обо)
вчера
yesterday
Questions & Answers about Вчера мы говорили о судьбе Чехова.
Why is Chekhov's name spelled Чехова here?
It is in the genitive case, meaning 'of Chekhov' (the fate of Chekhov). Russian masculine surnames ending in -ов, -ев, and -ин decline like standard nouns in the genitive case, so we simply add -а. Thus, Чехов becomes Чехова.
Why is the word for 'fate' written as судьбе instead of судьба?
The preposition о (about) requires the prepositional case. The noun судьба (fate) is a feminine noun ending in -а, so its prepositional form ends in -е, making it о судьбе.
If I wanted to say 'we talked about Chekhov', would I still use Чехова?
No. If you were talking directly about him, you would use the prepositional case because of the preposition о. Surnames in -ов take the standard prepositional ending -е, so it would be Вчера мы говорили о Чехове. In our sentence, the preposition о only affects судьбе.
How would this sentence change if we were talking about a female relative of Chekhov?