He played in three Soviet finals (1961, 1967, and 1968), and was awarded his IM title at the age of 64 in 1984, one of the oldest players to have reached this standard.
In the Leningrad Championship of 1950 he scored 7/13 for 6th place, but he fell short again at the Soviet semi-final level (Tartu 1950) with 5.5/15.
At Vilnius 1960, he made 11.5/17 in the Soviet semi-final to advance to his first final at Moscow 1961 (URS-ch28), and scored a respectable 7.5/19; the winner was Tigran Petrosian.
He had a very good tournament at the Sokolsky Memorial, Minsk 1981, scoring 8.5/15 to tie for 5th–7th places; the winner was Valery Chekhov.
He then put together the best result of his career, winning the 1984 Leningrad White Knights tournament with 8/13, ahead of several Grandmasters.