[2][3] Born in San Francisco, Suttles moved to Canada at age 8 when his father began teaching at the University of British Columbia.

[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.

[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.

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.

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.

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.

[27][28] The players fought each other over-the-board, but they also collaborated and learned from each other, and employed original playing styles to largely dominate Canadian chess for the better part of a decade.

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.

[24] Raymond Keene and George Botterill discussed Suttles' games and the strategy of the Rat in their book-length study, The Modern Defence (1972).

Published in three volumes in 2008, the effort was led by Bruce Harper with assistance from Yasser Seirawan, Gerard Welling, and Jonathan Berry.