Tweet
Happy Birthday Duncan! Your fans haven't forgotten you! Looking forward wishing you many more happy years.
-
-
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1135960 Another game of the day. I picked this one because it included an interesting endgame. -
-
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1135939 Another delight, The Hungarian Opening against Benko. Duncan shows his unique way of playing it.Comment
-
-
-
-
-
Many Happy Returns to GM / GMC Duncan Suttles, on his 80th birthday!!!Comment
-
One of my biggest joys in chess was getting the Duncan Suttle's collection Chess on the Edge for Christmas (for myself) in 2010. It has been a constant source of delight for reading and going over games over the last fifteen years. Several creative minds collaborated on the writing and analysing games (and proofing) of the three volume set.. GM Yasser Seirawan, GM Duncan Suttles, IM Gerard Welling, FM Bruce Harper amongst others. FM Dan Scoones and expert Erik Malmsten did the proofing and IM Lawrence Day did a magnetic introduction. I highly recommend getting rhe collection Chess on the Edge.Comment
-
Just after the Acknowledgements is a brief (very brief) interview of Duncan Suttles. Its very obvious Duncan is a man of few words. Amongst questions asked is: What do you think of the book? - Its good. Do you think reading the book will have an effect on the reader's rating? - For sure, one way or the other.
I can attest to this. I started playing the Rat sometime shortly after acquiring the collection. I remember playing Keith Wight a match at John Brown's place and I lost both games and altogether after a dozen tournament tries I performed at about 1600. Obviously not for me. But I greatly enjoy Suttle's way of playing and the annotations - oh, the annotations!
The question I liked most was: What game in the book is your favorite? - Cook - Suttles, Canadian Open 1973. I don't remember ever seeing this game (until I saw it in the book) How could that be? Then it became apparent. (after reading) it was Cook - Dobrila Suttles (Duncan's humor)
I missed out on attending the 1973 Canadian Open in Ottawa. I had been invited to go by Ray Ebisuzaki and Ted Durrant but sadly could not come up with the money. I missed out probably the most on not meeting Dobrila Suttles - apparently she is an amazing and charming conversationalist.Comment
-
The Foreword by Lawrence Day is vintage Lawrence.
When I first heard of Duncan Suttles I was 12 and he was 15. My dad drove me down from Ottawa to watch the last round of the 1961 Canadian Closed in Brockville. Not realizing the final game was in the morning we arrived too late. Duncan had qualified representing British Columbia. This was most impressive to me, despite his scoring poorly. Becoming a fan was automatic; his example was inspiring. Chess was clearly a game where age didnt matter!
I met Duncan in 1964 in New York at the 42nd Street Chess and Checker Club of New York (Lawrence was only 15!). It was, I later learned, commonly know as the Flea House. All that year he had been playing in every tournament he could get to by Greyhound bus. Duncan criss-crossed the continent collecting U.S. Championships. Killing a week in New York before the U.S. Open in Boston, he was engaged in a very long blitz match with Asa Hoffman. When the club closed at 5 am he slept briefly until the club reopened. His appetite for chess was inexhaustible.
We were paired against one another a month later in the second round of the Canadian Open in Scarboro. It was the first of our five encounters. Sharing third at that Canadian Open (behind Pal Benko and Zvonko Vranesic}, Suttles became the Canadian Junior Champion and our representative at the 1965 World Junior in Spain. There, although he didnt qualify for the A group, he won the B group ahead of Raymond Keene. My dad bought me the tournament bulletins for christmas and I pored over them, dissecting each game.
Lawrence goes on for four pages and then it is Yasser Seirawans turn with the preface.Comment
-
The best part of Yasser's account is his description (as a 13 yr old!) of the final round game between Walter Browne and Duncan Suttles. Walter who was leading the 1973 U.S. Open in Chicago going into the final round blew a winning game against Suttles. Yasser's words are priceless.
When the audience realized that Duncan had won the game, there was spontaneous applause - it seemed as if everyone at the tournament had crammed their way into the playing hall. I happened to be standing beside Grandmaster Father William Lombardy, who had earlier lost to Walter and who seemed to have a slight grudge against him. He held a huge cigar in his mouth, twisting it around with his left hand, exhaled a long plume of blue smoke into the air and with considerable relish said: You sure hate to see a nice guy like that lose
I (Yasser) could hardly wait to get back to Seattle and share all my stories from the event with my friends and family. Duncan was very much a folk hero in the whole Pacific Northwest. His original style of play thrilled and delighted us all.
Yasser goes on for three more pages in this vein.Comment
-
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1135777 This is the first game (that I could see) where Suttles ventured the ideas of the Rat. Its actually quite the game, interesting tactics and superb strategy.Comment
-
Lawrence and Duncan had some great sparring sessions. Here's the first one.https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1495686Comment
Comment