He played in the tournament Leningrad / Moscow 1939, scoring an excellent 8½/17 against an exceptionally strong field. During World War II, he played in national tournaments. In 1940, he took 3rd in Lvov (Lviv, Lwów, Lemberg), which was won by Abram Khavin. The war then seems to have stopped his chess activity for about three years. In February 1943, he won in Kuibyshev. In April/May 1943, he took 6th in Sverdlovsk, a very strong tournament, with 6½/14; the event was won by Botvinnik. In August/September 1943, he took 2nd, behind Boleslavsky, in Kuibyshev. In 1943, he won a match against Yakov Rokhlin (+7 –0 =1). In 1944, he won a match against Lev Aronin (+6 –1 =5). In 1944, he moved to stay in Moscow. He played in the 1945 Moscow City Championship, probably on average the strongest such event in the world, scoring 9/16.