Max Pavey (5 March 1918, Boston, USA – 4 September 1957, New York) was an American chess master and medical doctor. Pavey was of at least International Master strength.
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He was studying medicine in Glasgow, and while a student in Scotland he won the Scottish Championship at Aberdeen 1939, with 7.5/9.[1] Pavey would leave Scotland soon after this tournament, in June 1939, just before World War II. He was U.S. Lightning Champion in 1947. In 1948, he placed tied 5-8th place in the U.S. Open Chess Championship at Baltimore with 8.5/12.[2] He was New York State Champion in 1949.
In 1951, he took 3rd in New York (United States Chess Championship with 7/11; Larry Evans won).[3] Also in that year, Pavey gave a simultaneous exhibition in Brooklyn, and faced a seven-year-old Bobby Fischer in the lad's first attempt at serious chess; Pavey won in about a quarter of an hour.[4]
In 1954, he took 3rd in the New York Manhattan Chess Club Championship (Arnold Denker won). In 1953, he took 2nd, behind Donald Byrne, in Milwaukee (U.S. Open Chess Championship). In 1954, he played at third board, and lost to Paul Keres (+1 –2 =0) in a match USA vs USSR in New York. In 1955, he played at sixth board, and lost to Tigran Petrosian (+0 –2 =0) in a match USA vs USSR in Moscow.[3]
In 1955/56, he won in New York (Manhattan CC-ch), with 12/15. In 1956, he tied for 10-11th in New York (3rd Rosenwald Memorial; Samuel Reshevsky won).[3] In 1956/57, he beat young Bobby Fischer in New York (Manhattan CC-ch, semi-final), and won group 2 of that event with 4/5.[5]
Pavey died in the Mount Sinai Hospital, NYC, after a long battle with leukemia in 1957. Although ratings were not implemented for international chess until 1970, it is possible to rate historical chess performances from before that time using modern algorithms. The site chessmetrics.com specializes in historical ratings, and puts Pavey's peak at 2549 in July 1954, good for #88 in the world.[3] This is clearly International Master standard. There is a file of 29 of his games at chessgames.com.
A chess club in Westchester County, New York is named after him.