Post-war Form Drops
With the Nazi invaders in full retreat by 1944, organized chess slowly got going again in the Soviet Union. Alatortsev struggled in the 1944 Soviet Championship at Moscow (URS-ch13) with just 5.5/16 for 16th place, as Botvinnik won. He had to return to qualifying for the next Soviet final, and made it through at Moscow in the semi-final with 10.5/15 to tie for 2nd-4th places, as David Bronstein won. In the final that same year in Moscow (URS-ch14), he scored just 7.5/17, as Botvinnik dominated the field.
Alatortsev played 'hors concours' in the 1945 Latvian Championship at Riga, and won the tournament (but not the title). He scored 8.5/15 in the 1946 Moscow Championship to tie 4th-5th places, as Bronstein won again. He was below 50 per cent for the next two Soviet finals as well; in URS-ch15 at Leningrad 1947, he made 7.5/19, as Paul Keres won, and then in URS-ch16 at Moscow 1948, he finished well down with 7.5/18, as Bronstein and Alexander Kotov won. Alatortsev qualified successfully through the semi-final at Moscow 1949 with 9.5/16, and then he played his last Soviet Championship final, URS-ch18 at Moscow 1950, scoring a good 9/17 to tie for 7th-10th places, as Keres won.
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