Duncan Suttles is a Canadian chess Grandmaster, recognized as one of Canada's top chess players during the 1960s and 1970s. Born on December 21, 1945, in San Francisco, California, he moved to Vancouver, British Columbia as a teenager. He won various chess championships, including the Canadian Junior Championship and the Canadian Chess Championship. Suttles won his first international tournament, the 1969 Pacific Southwest Open in Los Angeles. He was awarded the International Master title in 1972 and became a Grandmaster in 1973.
Suttles is well-known for his unusual and unorthodox style of play, often choosing offbeat openings and applying hypermodern concepts. He is particularly renowned for employing the fianchetto form of development for his bishop pieces. This distinctive style has led to his distinction as the most important exponent of fianchettoed openings in the modern era.
Later, he decided to step back from competitive play and became a professional computer consultant. Suttles was instrumental in the development of the pioneering Zarkov chess program. He temporarily came out of retirement in 1982 to play for Canada at the Chess Olympiad, performing commendably. Afterward, he made occasional appearances at local Vancouver chess events. Suttles was inducted into the Canadian Chess Hall of Fame in 2001.