Max Pavey

Max Pavey (March 5, 1918 – September 4, 1957) was an American chess master and medical doctor.

He was studying medicine in Glasgow, and while a student in Scotland he won the Scottish Championship at Aberdeen 1939, with 7.5/9. 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. 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). Also in that year, Pavey gave a simultaneous exhibition in Brooklyn, and faced a seven-year-old Bobby Fischer in the future World Chess Champion's first attempt at serious chess; Pavey won in about a quarter of an hour.

In 1954, he took 3rd in the New York Manhattan Chess Club Championship (Arnold Denker won). In 1953, he finished second behind Donald Byrne at the Milwaukee U.S. Open Chess Championship. In 1954, he represented USA on third board in a match against the USSR in New York, and lost to Paul Keres (+1 –2 =0). Following this event, Chessmetrics estimates a peak rating of 2549 for Pavey in July 1954, ranking him No. 88 in the world. In 1955, he played on sixth board and lost to Tigran Petrosian (+0 –2 =0) in another USA vs USSR match in Moscow.

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