Heh, chess being featured on "Wide World of Sports". You won't see anything like that now. lol

Like you said, that chess rivalry was pretty much entirely fueled by the Cold War. In many ways the same thing happened with the space program. Once the USSR was gone and the Cold War over, general interest in the space program dwindled.

“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”