ZEELAND, MI -- Bill Crooks, 82, can still remember the fascination and tension that surrounded what may be the world's most famous chess match.

Set during the height of the Cold War, it pitted American prodigy Bobby Fischer against the Soviet Empire, whose players dominated the game for decades.

It was Crooks' Midwestern hospitable nature that pushed Herman Miller into the intrigue, which is being retold with the recently released film Pawn Sacrifice. The story of the famed 1972 World Chess Championship stars Tobey Maguire as Fischer and Liev Schreiber as his chess nemesis, Boris Spassky.

It's the retelling of what happened during the "Match of the Century," a 21-game competition in Reykjavik, Iceland, that ended 24 years of Soviet domination of the World Chess Championship.

Herman Miller became involved when Fischer insisted he would only sit in an Eames executive chair made by the Zeeland office furniture manufacturer.

After a soft leather chair was provided for him, Spassky in turn complained the uncomfortable straight back wooden chair put him at a disadvantage in the hours long chess matches.

Fischer had discovered the chair while playing a tournament in Latin America, Crooks said.

The chess champions' seating demands made headlines in The Grand Rapids Press, which is how Crooks said he learned of it.

The next day, Crooks asked a Herman Miller executive if he could arrange for an Eames chair to be provided for Spassky.

Given the go-ahead, he worked with the company's New York showroom to locate an available Eames chair, and the New York Chess Federation to pay to have it air-freighted to Iceland.

"By 3 o'clock, there was one of these chairs on its way to Iceland," said Crooks, adding that that the chair's arrival generated more headlines in this international drama.

"I got a pat on the back for a job well done," Crooks said.

Things took a turn when Spassky lost and there was suspicion the Eames was to blame.

An X-ray of the chair found a piece of metal in the wooden frame. It was seen as evidence that the chair was bugged. Listening devices were used by spies during the Cold War.

Crooks, then Herman Miller's customer services manager, was in the hot seat to explain what the metal object could be. He went to the manufacturing floor to talk to the longtime foreman, who was responsible for overseeing the wood processed for the seating.

"I told him the story and all," said Crooks. "He said 'you can just tell them that we use real wood from real trees, and that was probably a hunter's bullet that was fired into the tree and when the wood was brought out the bullet was probably lodged in there.'"

"I said "Really?'"

"He said "Do you have something better?"

"I said 'OK'," said Crooks, with a laugh.

So he sent that explanation back up the chain of command and it was relayed to the Russians in Iceland.

"They bought it," Crooks said.

Last year, Crooks says he was interviewed by screenwriter Steven Knight about his experience.

Neither Knight nor director Edward Zwick were available for an interview with MLive and The Grand Rapids Press, the film's publicist said.

While Eames chairs are used in the film, the Herman Miller subplot isn't part of the PG-13 film, publicist said.

Pawn Sacrifice, which focuses on Fischer's terrifying struggles with genius and madness, has received generally positive reviews.

Herman Miller still hasn't forgotten its role in this piece of international intrigue. An interview with Crooks is part of a video about the company's history shown to new employees.

Crooks retired from Herman Miller in 1994 after a 26-year career.

The Eames executive chair, first known as the Time-Life chair because it was designed by Charles and Ray Eames for Henry Luce's new ultra-modern Time-Life headquarters that opened in New York City in 1960, is still in production. The chair's current price tag begins $3319.

Shandra Martinez covers business for MLive/The Grand Rapids Press. Email her or follow her on Twitter @shandramartinez.

