As an active tournament player in the 1960s and 1970s, he achieved many fine results, including sharing or winning outright first place at Sarajevo 1965, Copenhagen 1965, Titovo Uzice 1966, Hastings 1967/68, Havana 1969, Albena 1970, Kecskemet 1972, Brno 1975 (the inaugural Czech Open Championship – the title of Champion going to Vlastimil Hort on tie-break), Lublin 1976, and Dubna 1979.
One of his greatest tournament successes followed in 1971, when he finished second at Venice (after Browne but ahead of Hort, Kavalek and Gligorić).