His father was a wealthy landowner, a Marshal of the Nobility and a member of the State Duma, and his mother was an heiress to an industrial fortune.
Both he and his younger brother Alexander were taught chess by their mother.
Alexei drew with Harry Nelson Pillsbury when the American master gave a simultaneousblindfold display in Moscow in 1902. He tied for fourth in the Moscow Chess Club Autumn tournament in 1907, while Alexander tied for eleventh. Alexei finished third at Moscow 1913 (Oldřich Duras won), and tied for third at Moscow 1915. He was an editor of the chess journal "Shakhmatny Vyestnik" from 1913 to 1916.[1]
After the October Revolution, he won (elimination – third group) and took third place in the tournament for amateurs in Moscow, held in October 1920,[2] while his brother Alexander won the first USSR Chess Championship (All-Russian Chess Olympiad) there.[3]
^"Archived copy"(PDF). Archived from the original(PDF) on 2007-07-04. Retrieved 2015-09-20.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) Name Index to Jeremy Gaige's Chess Tournament Crosstables, An Electronic Edition, Anders Thulin, Malmö, 2004-09-01