> I was a very surprised to see so many viewers. Well, once upon a time (i.e. 42 years ago), during the Cold War, we had the "Match of the Century"[1], aka Fis

> I was a very surprised to see so many viewers. Well, once upon a time (i.e. 42 years ago), during the Cold War, we had the "Match of the Century"[1], aka Fischer-Spassky. The dominant evil empire USSR against the upstart USA. Played in Reykjavík, Iceland over a period lasting more than 6 weeks. Certainly more than 10,000 people were "interested" in the proceedings. I was "glued" to the local NYC PBS station as Shelby Lyman "narrated". Those two words are in quotes, because moves might arrive two or three at a time, about every 15 or 30 minutes or so. In the meantime poor Shelby could do nothing but ad-lib, speculate as to what might be happening. The local PBS station devoted many many hours a week to this play-by-play. Times have changed. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Chess_Championship_1972 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Chess_Championship_1972