He was born in Mykhailo-Kotsiubynske, a village in today's Chernihiv oblast of Ukraine.
In 1907 he won, ahead of Benjamin Blumenfeld and Georg Marco, in Moscow.
In 1909, he finished 13th in St Petersburg, but defeated co-tournament winners Emanuel Lasker (the world champion at the time) and Rubinstein in their individual games.
In 1910, he took 4th in St Petersburg (Sergey von Freymann, Lebedev and Grigory Levenfish won).
In 1913, he lost both games of an exhibition mini-match to José Raúl Capablanca in St Petersburg.
In 1927, he tied for 3rd–4th in Moscow (5th URS-ch; Fedor Bohatyrchuk and Romanovsky won).
In 1944, he tied for 15–16th in Moscow (URS-ch sf; Alexander Kotov won).
After the war got over, he resumed active tournament play despite advanced age.
[3] He was awarded the International Master title in 1950 based on his past achievements.