While we usually mean setting in terms of the physical details of the place in which the action occurs, remember that setting in literature incorporates much more than simple location. When literature is set in a particular place at a particular time, the setting also evokes what we might call atmosphere. Consider that the New York City of 1889 is quite different from the one of 2016, and a Friday in Central Park is quite different at 3:00pm and 3:00am. Setting is always especially important in Chekov.
There are two basic settings—i.e. physical locations—in this story, Yalta and Moscow. The places themselves could not be more different.
Yalta was (and still is) a seaside vacation spot where people go on carefree, sun and sand filled holidays in summer months with nothing in particular to do but seek after personal amusement, away from the daily routine. The setting, then, is perfectly suited to the idleness most closely associated with privilege, a place where people of means go to be both festive and bored.
Moscow, on the other hand, is a bustling city, frightfully cold in winter and dark and crowded with busy people—in other words, the complete opposite of Yalta.
Chekov chose the settings to be different in every conceivable way in order to emphasize and underscore the difference in the two sections of the story, from events to character development to mood.
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