| Duncan Suttles | |
|---|---|
| Country |  Canada |
| Born | 21 December 1945 (age 77) San Francisco, California |
| Title |
|
| FIDE rating | 2420 (January 1985) |
| Peak rating | 2485 (July 1973) |
| ICCF rating | 2632 (January 1992) |
Duncan Suttles (born 21 December 1945) is a chess grandmaster. [1] Canada's second grandmaster after Abe Yanofsky, Suttles was recognized internationally for the originality of his strategic play in the mid-1960s and 70s. He retired from competitive chess in 1985. [2] [3]
Born in San Francisco, Suttles moved to Canada at age 8 when his father began teaching at the University of British Columbia. Mentored by Elod Macskasy, he was of national master strength by his mid-teens, which was unusual for Canadian chess at that time. [4]
Suttles was 15 when made his first appearance in the Closed Canadian Chess Championship at Brockville, 1961, scoring 3/11. [5] Suttles won the British Columbia Championship in 1963 and 1966. [6] In his second Closed, he scored 8½ from 15 games at Winnipeg 1963, finishing just above the middle of the strongest and youngest field yet seen in a Canadian final. Suttles tied for 3rd–5th places in the 1964 Canadian Open Chess Championship in Toronto, and as the top junior, qualified for the 1965 World Junior Chess Championship. [7] He took part in the Gijon International Chess Tournament (1965), placing 2nd behind Luis Bronstein. [8] At home in Vancouver for the 1965 Canadian Championship, Suttles scored 8/11, finishing second behind eight-time champion Abe Yanofsky. As a dual citizen (he became a Canadian citizen in 1966), Suttles was also eligible for the US Championship in New York City in 1965–66, where he finished last with 2½/11; Bobby Fischer won. [9]
Suttles attended the University of British Columbia and represented the school in inter-university chess competition. [10] He earned his undergraduate degree in mathematics and began to study for a doctorate, but eventually quit the program to work in private industry. [11] He married his wife Dobrila in 1968.
Suttles represented Canada at the Junior World Chess Championship, Barcelona, 1965. He scored 1½/4 playing in a strong preliminary group which included the eventual winner, Bojan Kurajica. [12] He did win the B final, however, ahead of Raymond Keene. [13] He represented Canada in the qualifying Interzonal event for the World Chess Championship at Sousse, 1967, scoring 9½/21 for 15th place. [14] [15] Suttles won the Canadian Chess Championship held at Pointe-Claire 1969, after a playoff match against Zvonko Vranesic in Toronto, which Suttles won 2½–1½. [4] This qualified him for the Interzonal at Palma de Mallorca, 1970, where he tied for 15th-16th place with a 10/23 score. [16] [17]
At 18, Suttles was chosen for the Canadian Olympiad team in Tel Aviv, 1964, the first of his eight appearances, including six in a row over a period of 20 years. [18] He frequently played a large number of games in these team events, near the maximum. His totals for Canada in the Olympiads were +49 −30 =43, for 57.8 percent. He also played Board 1 on the Canadian team at the 1971 Student Olympiad that won the bronze medal. [19]
Suttles was already of grandmaster strength by 1968, and in fact qualified for the grandmaster title at the Lugano Olympiad. However, he was denied the title on the basis of a technicality, namely that he had played (and won) one more than the required number of games in the event. [20] [21] Instead, Suttles settled for the International Master title earned at the Sousse Interzonal in 1967. He finally achieved the grandmaster title at the San Antonio tournament of 1972, gaining the last half-point needed by drawing his game against the former world champion, Tigran Petrosian. [21]
He won the Canadian Open Chess Championship at Ottawa 1973. He also won the 1973 La Presse Open in Montreal. Suttles tied for first place in the U.S. Open Chess Championship at Chicago 1973, scoring 10/12 and defeating GM Walter Browne in the last round. [22] [23] Suttles placed clear second in the 1974 Canadian Open Chess Championship in Montreal with 9½/11, losing only to the winner, Ljubomir Ljubojević. That same year, Suttles finished third in a strong field at an international tournament in Venice. [24]
He won the International Open at the Vancouver International Chess Congress in 1981, defeating Tony Miles and Yasser Seirawan in the final two rounds. [25] The 1984 Vancouver Futurity marked Suttles's final Canadian event. [7]
While taking a break from over-the-board chess, Suttles won a major international correspondence chess tournament, the Heilimo Memorial, played from 1978–1981. Awarded the title of International Grandmaster of Correspondence Chess in 1982, he is one of the few players in chess history to hold both over-the-board and correspondence GM titles. [7]
In his youth, Suttles was strongly influenced by Aron Nimzowitsch, and became, like Nimzowitsch, well-known for his unorthodox treatment of hypermodern openings.
Suttles championed the Modern Defence from the mid-1960s, showing that the line, which had previously been regarded with skepticism, was a fully playable universal defence against any White opening move. The line was dubbed The Rat, after the Black fianchettoed bishop which kept dodging around in its holes. [26]
As White, Suttles favoured 1.e4, with a predilection for the Closed Variation against the Sicilian Defence, and the baroque Vienna Game after 1.e4 e5. He occasionally played the English Opening (1.c4) as well. By the early 1970s, he was frequently opening with 1.g3 as White, aiming for a reversed Modern Defence, another new opening idea. His unique skills – such as the avoidance of main opening lines, use of a defensive kingside fianchetto, development of knights to unusual squares, and sudden eruption of tactics – are illustrated in the games listed below.
Suttles was the leader in the group of young masters mentored by Macskasy. [27] [28] The players fought each other over-the-board, they but also collaborated and learned from each other, and employed original playing styles to largely dominate Canadian chess for the better part of a decade. Other group members from the late 1960s were Peter Biyiasas, Bruce Harper, Jonathan Berry, and Robert Zuk.
Suttles' originality gained the attention of the chess world, but it also sparked some degree of incomprehension. [29] Robert Byrne, chess columnist for the New York Times, wrote:
The taciturn Suttles is notorious for the most eccentric style in current chess – what might be called "outlandish hypermodernism." Not only does he develop his bishops on the wings, he also frequently sends his knights to the edges of the board too. If one can speak of antecedents for Suttles, it would have to be the crotchety British master Henry E. Bird or the defiant Wilhelm Steinitz at his most bizarre. [30]
However, Pal Benko commented that:
It is getting more and more difficult to find new ideas in theory, and for this reason one must admire those masters who are able to direct the game according to their original imagination and avoid the commonplace. One of these masters is Suttles, who has been called the Canadian Nimzovich. His wife Dobrila tells me that Duncan has no chess books at home, but this does not mean that he is unprepared for his opponents. He takes the time before each game to go over his systems. [24]
Raymond Keene and George Botterill discussed Suttles' games and the strategy of the Rat in their book-length study, The Modern Defence (1972). [26]
The World of Chess (1974), by Anthony Saidy and Norman Lessing, said that Suttles was the "most original strategist since Nimzowitsch." [31]
"Suttles' style is unusual and he specializes in irregular openings," according to The Batsford Encyclopedia of Chess. "His positions look awkward but his play is sound and he is remarkably good at finding ingenious defences in what seem to be hopeless positions." [32]
The largest annotated collection of Suttles' games (more than 600 in all) is Chess on the Edge. Published in three volumes in 2008, the effort was led by Bruce Harper with assistance from Yasser Seirawan, Gerard Welling, and Jonathan Berry. [33]
Jan Timman is a Dutch chess grandmaster who was one of the world's leading chess players from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. At the peak of his career, he was considered to be the best non-Soviet player and was known as "The Best of the West". He has won the Dutch Chess Championship nine times and has been a Candidate for the World Chess Championship several times. He lost the title match of the 1993 FIDE World Championship against Anatoly Karpov.
Yasser Seirawan is a Syrian-born American chess grandmaster and four-time United States champion. He won the World Junior Chess Championship in 1979. Seirawan is also a published chess author and commentator.
Leonid Zakharovich Stein was a Soviet chess Grandmaster from Ukraine. He won three USSR Chess Championships in the 1960s, and was among the world's top ten players during that era.
Jørgen Bent Larsen was a Danish chess grandmaster and author. Known for his imaginative and unorthodox style of play, he was the second strongest non-Soviet player, behind Bobby Fischer, for much of the 1960s and 1970s. He is considered to be the strongest player born in Denmark and the strongest from Scandinavia until the emergence of Magnus Carlsen.
The Modern Defense is a hypermodern chess opening in which Black allows White to occupy the center with pawns on d4 and e4, then proceeds to attack and undermine this "ideal" center without attempting to occupy it. The opening has been most notably used by British grandmasters Nigel Davies and Colin McNab.
Henrique Costa Mecking, also known as Mequinho, is a Brazilian chess grandmaster who reached his zenith in the 1970s and is still one of the strongest players in Brazil. He was a chess prodigy, drawing comparisons to Bobby Fischer, although he did not achieve the International Grandmaster title until 1972. He won the Interzonals of Petropolis 1973 and Manila 1976. His highest FIDE rating is 2635, achieved in 1977, when he was ranked number four in the world. He became the 3rd best in the world in 1977, behind only World Champion Anatoly Karpov and Viktor Korchnoi. He is the first Brazilian to become a grandmaster. Despite winning his first national championship at the age of 13, he played in very few tournaments. He won at Vršac in 1971 and finished third with Robert Byrne at Hastings in 1971–72. In 1975, he twice shared second place behind Ljubomir Ljubojević, firstly at Las Palmas with Ulf Andersson and Mikhail Tal and then at Manila with Lev Polugaevsky, Bent Larsen and Helmut Pfleger.
Robert Eugene Byrne was an American chess player and chess author who held the FIDE title of Grandmaster (GM). He won the U.S. Championship in 1972, and was a World Chess Championship Candidate in 1974. Byrne represented the United States nine times in Chess Olympiads from 1952 to 1976 and won seven medals. He was the chess columnist from 1972 to 2006 for The New York Times, which ran his final column on November 12, 2006. Byrne worked as a university professor for many years, before becoming a chess professional in the early 1970s.
Lajos Portisch is a Hungarian chess Grandmaster, whose positional style earned him the nickname, the "Hungarian Botvinnik". One of the strongest non-Soviet players from the early 1960s into the late 1980s, he participated in twelve consecutive Interzonals from 1962 through 1993, qualifying for the World Chess Championship Candidates Cycle a total of eight times. Portisch set several all-time records in Chess Olympiads. In Hungarian Chess Championships, he either shared the title or won it outright a total of eight times. He won many strong international tournaments during his career. In 2004, Portisch was awarded the title of 'Nemzet Sportolója', Hungary's highest national sports achievement award.
Pal Charles Benko was a Hungarian and American chess player, author, and composer of endgame studies and chess problems.
Mark Bluvshtein is a Soviet-born Canadian chess player. He became the youngest Canadian ever to achieve the title of Grandmaster in 2004, at the age of 16. He previously achieved the title International Master at the age of 13.
Kevin Spraggett is a chess grandmaster. He was the fourth Canadian to earn the grandmaster title, after Abe Yanofsky, Duncan Suttles and Peter Biyiasas. Spraggett is the only Canadian ever to have qualified for the world championship Candidates Tournament, having done so in 1985 and 1988. He has won a total of eight Canadian Open Chess Championships, seven Closed Canadian Chess Championships, and has represented Canada eight times in Olympiad play. Spraggett has also written for Canadian chess publications and published a chess blog.
Zvonko Vranesic is a Croatian–Canadian International Master of chess, and an International Master of Correspondence Chess. He is an electrical engineer, a university professor, and a developer of computer chess software.
Lawrence Alexander Day is a Canadian chess player, author, and journalist who holds the FIDE title of International Master. He represented Canada at 13 Chess Olympiads.
Peter Biyiasas is a Canadian chess grandmaster. He was Canadian champion in 1972 and 1975, represented Canada with success on four Olympiad teams, and played in two Interzonals. He moved to the United States in 1979, settling in California. He retired from competitive play in the mid-1980s to work as a computer programmer. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, he was a frequent training partner of Bobby Fischer, who stayed at his home in San Francisco for extended periods.
Deen Hergott is a Canadian International Master of Chess. By profession, he is a mathematician, computer programmer, and chess journalist.
Pascal Charbonneau is a Canadian chess grandmaster. He has won two Canadian Chess Championships, in 2002 and 2004, and has represented Canada in five Chess Olympiads: 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006 and 2008.
Jean Hébert is a Canadian chess player, writer, journalist, and commentator who holds the ICCF title of Correspondence Chess Grandmaster and the FIDE title of International Master. He is the 2009 Canadian chess champion, a title he first won in 1978. He tied for this title in 2007 as well, but lost in playoffs. He represented Canada at the 1979 Interzonal tournament, as well as seven times in chess Olympiads. He took part in the Chess World Cup 2009 and was knocked out by Peter Svidler in the first round.
Alexander Mikhailovich Chernin is a Soviet-born Hungarian chess grandmaster and trainer.
Igor Vasilyevich Ivanov was a Russian-born chess grandmaster who defected from the Soviet Union to Canada in 1980. A four-time winner of the Canadian chess championship, he represented Canada at an interzonal tournament for the world chess championship and was a Canadian team member at two Chess Olympiads. He also was a nine-time US Grand Prix chess champion.
Elod Macskasy was a Hungarian-Canadian chess master.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
