Soviet Chess Grandmaster as well as a coach and theorist, who participated in several Soviet Championships.
He was part of the unrivaled Soviet Student Olympiad, which won the silver medal at the first ever Student Olympiad in Oslo 1954 and then took gold medals at Lyons 1955 and at Uppsala 1956.
He won the Soviet National Correspondence Chess Championship in 1960.
His family recognized his talent when he was very young.
He was a Olympiad teammate of the legendary Boris Spassky.
