Playing below world-class grandmasters Mark Taimanov and Boris Spassky, but above Alexey Suetin, his endeavors also earned him an individual gold medal for best score on board three.
The latter was probably his finest moment, scoring +8−1=6, to take first place among reasonably strong opposition, including Victor Ciocaltea and Wolfgang Uhlmann.
[6] His other results were nevertheless respectable; 2nd at Kienbaum (Berlin) 1959 (Uhlmann won), 5th at Moscow 1960 (ahead of Polugaevsky, Hort and Uhlmann), 4th at Sochi 1963, 4th at Moscow 1963 (ahead of Keres, Liberzon, Szabó and Hort), 6th= at Sochi 1964, 2nd at Venice 1966 (Ivkov won) and 4th at Havana 1968 (The Capablanca Memorial).
He became a tournament organiser and trainer to the USSR Olympiad team,[7] maintained a second career as a technical designer, and according to Cafferty & Taimanov, was also supposed to have strong links with the KGB.
In the Antoshin Variation, Black chooses to exchange central pawns and head for simple, rapid development of the kingside.
[10] The opening remains fully playable, however, with modern-day proponents including Lev Aronian, Étienne Bacrot and Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu.