Who is your favorite GM?

Okay, this time around I'll go with Duncan Suttles. I remember back when he was playing (and getting his GM norms) me and my friends thought that he was either 1) insane or 2) a practical joker. I mean, he couldn't possibly be serious about some (okay, most) of the openings he played...now he looks pretty much like a visionary.

We would hunt out his games (back in the days when you still had to hunt for games), and play them over, alternately laughing and enthralled. "Duncan the Subtle" a friend of mine would say, every time Suttles came up with one of his more peculiar...er, trademark moves.

We had a hard time believing that he ever got to be a GM, the way he played. Of course, had we really been thinking about it, we might've been even more impressed that he was able to meet the norms (and score big at San Antonio 1972) with the trouble he might be said to have caused for himself with his quixotic debuts. But then again, I guess we weren't really thinking.

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 Sounds like an incredibly interesting character, do you perhaps have a favorite or more memorable Suttle game with some of his "trademark" moves?

Okay, here's a pretty typical example (you also have to remember that back in 1974 nobody would even think of playing h5 so early or of uncastling their king like that):

 

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1116860

What an interesting game tonydal; I've never seen such odd moves come from a master.  This is the first time I've ever heard of him either.

i was at a tourny the other weekend and i saw a new book about this GM SUTTLES, i think it was his best games collection, wish id bought it now :-)

Thanks for the quick post. That was an awesome game. The way he thrust his knights in there with no fear and great skill reminded me a little of some Fischer games I have seen posted here. Correct me if I'm wrong though, 42 Bb5? Was that a blunder, wouldn't Qd1 have been a better move? Yeah, it wouldn't have stopped the pawn advancing down the a-file but you could hope for a miracle blunder, no?

Suttles was the first GM I ever played...well it was when he was gathering GM norms anyway. He had a big smile on his face as he demolished a very inexperienced me in an offhand game in the skittles room. Nice guy to play me.

Alexandre Lesiege

42 Qd1 Qxe3

Personally, I like GM Tal the best.

Those no longer with us: Alekhine and Reti. Still here: Kasparov (greatest player of all time) and Nakumura and Anand (nice guy) and Susan Polgar 

GM Bisguier was an absolute gentleman when I played against him. He went out of his way to compliment my opening moves, and showed me where I could have later in the game reached a draw. A post-mortem against someone of that playing caliber is worth two GM lessons, because of the fresh analysis variations still in my head from during the game.

For those curious, the line I missed was the tail end of a combination, where he would have won a rook on a8 with a knight, and I could have cornered the knight with my King. The last part I didn't see - I only saw that he could fork my king and rook.

Yeah, I'll second Bisguier as being the nicest of guys.  A friend of mine played him at the 1979 US Open in Chicago, and after the game (and a very interesting and informative post-mortem) I remember Bisguier talking about how difficult it was to keep his rating up with all the competition he had to face.  He said that if he lost to my friend a single game, he would have to beat him 15 times in a row just to stay even--"And there's no way in the world I can count on beating somebody like you 15 times in a row."  Very gracious words--my friend was but an A player at the time (as was I)--yet evidently sincere.

He was hardly a slouch as a player either.  He scored 50% in Bled 1961, one of the strongest tournaments of all time--and beat both Keres and Geller in that event!  There was also the classic game he played (against Mengarini, I think it was) in 1948.

have you guys watched this video i posted last week? its got Bisguier in it!

and can you NM'S tell me? is it a true story?

http://www.chess.com/video/view/very-funny

waking up fischer?

terrible decision

Yeah, that's a true one. The Complete Chess Addict in fact names it as one of the 5 worst blunders of all time. To give some idea of what Arthur was up against, bear in mind that he won the first game he ever played against Bobby--and then lost the next 13! (I think there was also a draw in there somewhere). He would get good positions too--it was just a jinx.