Championship of Scotland 1939

Max Pavey

     The year 1939 began with Laszlo Szabo winning the 1938/39 Hastings Congress and in mid-April Margate was won by Paul Keres, ahead of Jose Capablanca and Salo Flohr. The 11th USSR Championship was held in Leningrad from mid-April to mid-May and it was won by Mikhail Botvinnik followed by Alexander Kotov and Sergey Belavenets. 
     In 1939, the Olympiad (known at the time as the Hamilton-Russell Cup) along with the Women’s World Championship was played in Buenos Aires between August 21 and September 19, 1939. Germany won the gold medal, Poland silver, and Estonia bronze. Vera Menchik-Stevenson won the Women’s World Championship. When Germany invaded Poland, starting World War II on September 1st, Great Britain dropped out and its players returned to England and many players remained in Argentina. 
     Earlier in the year in Aberdeen, Max Pavey won the championship of Scotland. Pavey, who was born in Boston, Massachusetts on March 5, 1918, was a 21–year-old student from Brooklyn who was studying medicine in Glasgow.
     Pavey left Scotland soon after the tournament (in June) and only returned when he made a brief stop in 1955 when returning from the USA vs. USSR match in Moscow. Pavey died at the age of 39 on September 4, 1957, as a result of leukemia which he contracted on his job.
     Pavey wasn’t the only American playing for the championship. A virtually unknown player named Neil Bernstein was a student in Edinburgh as was the only somewhat better known Louis Geronimus (February 25 1916, New York City - August 31, 1989 Massapequa Park, NY). 
     The reason they were studying in Scotland was because there were limited places for Jewish students in US medical schools and many chose to go to Britain. Both joined Edinburgh’s Stockbridge Chess Club. Geronimus and Pavey knew each other from the intercollegiate chess team of City College of New York. 
     Geronimus, from Brooklyn, returned to the US in July 1939, and the outbreak of war soon after put an end to his medical studies for some time as it did for both Bernstein and Pavey. During World War Two Geronimus served in the Army as a Captain in a medical supply company in San Antonio, Texas. In 1947 he returned to Edinburgh where he got married. They departed for the US in December, 1948. 
 

Aitken

   Pavey’s opponent in this game was Dr. James M. Aitken (October 27, 1908 – December 3, 1983, age 75). Aitken received his PhD in 1938 from Edinburgh University on the topic of The Trial of George Buchanan Before the Lisbon Inquisition. He learned chess from his father at age 10 and was Scottish champion in 1935, 1952, 1953, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1960, 1961 and 1965. He was also London Champion in 1950. He also played in several British champioships wit his best result coming in 1959 when he tied for seventh place. During World War II, Aitken worked in Hut 6 at Bletchley Park on solving German Enigma machines. Aside from chess his hobbies included golf, philately, bridge, and watching cricket.

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[Event "Scottish Championship"]
[Site "Aberdeen"]
[Date "1939.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Dr. J. M. Aitken"]
[Black "Max Pavey"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteELO "?"]
[BlackELO "?"]

%Created by Caissa's Web PGN Editor
{Sicilian Defense} 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. f3 {A favorite
of Aitken, but the weak point is that black can force d5 at the right time
which will give him the better game.} 5... e5 6. Nb5 {This baits a trap. If
black plays 6...d5 loses after 7 exd5 Nxd5 8 Qxd5 Qxd5 9 Nc7+ However, by
playing 7.. .a6 black avoids the trap, but the P on d5 is bothersome.} 6...
a6 7. N5c3 Be6 8. Nd5 {This is beetr that 8.Nd2 and 9.Nb3 as occurred in
Feller,S (2540)-Edouard, R (2509)/Lyon 2008} 8... Nxd5 9. exd5 Bf5 10. Be3 {An
alternative was 10.Bd3 Bg6 11. O-O and the game Fine,R-Eliskases,E/Semmering
1937 was soon drawn.} 10... Qh4+ 11. Kd2 {As bad as it looks this isn't fatal,
but there was no reason to avoid 11. Bf2} 11... Nd7 {Black gets nothing out of
11...Qb4+ so just continues his development and hopefully white's K will be
shown to be in a bad place.} 12. c4 Be7 {White's best plan would now be to
force black black's pieces with 13.13. Qf6 14.g4} 13. Qe1 Qxe1+ {There's not
much choice here because 13 ..Qf6 to avoid exchange leaves black's pieces in
each others' way.} 14. Kxe1 O-O 15. Nc3 {In spite of white's odd play the
position is no more than equal.} 15... Rfc8 16. Ne4 {A viable alternative to
Pavey's next move would have been 16...Bg6 followed by the advance of his
f-Pawn.} 16... b5 {This is too risky, but it works out well. That would not
have been the case if white had played the correct 17.cxb5!} 17. Rc1 Bxe4 18.
fxe4 Nf6 19. cxb5 Rxc1+ 20. Bxc1 axb5 21. Bxb5 {Considerably better would have
been 21.Bd3 Rxa2 22.Kd1.} 21... Rxa2 22. Kd2 Nxe4+ 23. Kc2 f5 {At first glance
it appears that white has good prospects because of his outside passed P which
he does get moving. However, in the long run it's going to be Pavey's passed
e-Pawn that secures the point. Stockfish, as did Pavey, reckons black's
position strategically superior. Pavey's play is very instructive. He first
deals with white's b-Pawn.} 24. Kb1 Ra5 25. Bc6 f4 {He prevents the B from
reaching e3, but better was pressing home the attack on the K with 25...Rc5
and if 26.b4 Rc4 27.b5 Nc3+ with exellent chances. The hidden flaw in 25...f4
wiil soon be evident.} 26. Re1 Nf6 {Note that the B on e7 is undefended so
white can play 27.Bxf4! After 27...Nxd5 28,Bd2 black is still better, but
white is better off than in the game.} 27. b4 Ra7 28. Bd2 Bd8 29. b5 Kf7 30.
Re2 {Stockfish demonstrates that by playing 30...Bb6 white's plans are stymied
and black can then tend to forming a winning plan by advancing his K-side Ps.
However, from a human perspective the play gets very messy and it's certain
that had Aitken played 30...Bb6 mistakes would be made because after that move
there be dragons in the position.} 30... Nd7 31. Bb4 Ke7 32. Kb2 Bb6 33. Kb3
Rc7 {Whatever he does black must not allow his N to be exchanged for white's
dark squared because the resulting Bs of opposite color make a draw likely.}
34. Kc4 {Hindering ...g5 with 34.h4 was better.} 34... g5 35. Kd3 Bc5 36.
Bxc5 Nxc5+ 37. Kc4 e4 {The beginning of the end. Now you'd think the advance
38.b6 would be a winner and it could be if black gets careless. 38...Rc8
39.Ra2 Rb8 40.b7 and now the careless 40...Nxb7 41.Ra7 wins the N. Vigilance
is required right up until your opponent resigns! If black plays 40. ..Kd8
instead then he should win.} 38. Kd4 {This really doesn't help so he probably
should have played 38.b6 and hope black blunders.} 38... e3 39. g3 {It's too
late to gain anything from the advance of the b-Pawn.} 39... Kf6 {White can't
do anything so black intends on playing ...Kf5-g4-f3 etc.} 40. h4 h6 41. Be8
Nb3+ 42. Ke4 {Here Pavey misses the better 42...Re7+ which wins immediately
because whichever square the K moves to black has a N fork.} 42... Rc4+ 43.
Kd3 Rc8 44. hxg5+ hxg5 45. Bh5 Nc1+ 46. Ke4 Rc4+ 47. Kf3 Nxe2 48. Kxe2 Rb4
{48...Rc2+ mates in 20 moves, but who's counting?} 49. gxf4 gxf4 {Aitken
resigned.} 0-1