So, his best results in the Soviet national championships, which during that period were the strongest tournaments in the world, were four times in the top six (1937, 1945, 1948, 1950). In any virtually other nation in the world during that period, he would have been its national champion, and an almost certain Grandmaster. Because the Soviet chess talent was so deep, he never earned the highest chess title. His best games show he could hold his own with anyone in the USSR, with victories over Botvinnik, Keres, Kotov, Boleslavsky, Grigory Levenfish, Vasily Smyslov, Salo Flohr, Alexander Tolush, Viacheslav Ragozin, Andor Lilienthal, Viktor Korchnoi, Yuri Averbakh, Ratmir Kholmov, Boris Verlinsky, and others.