Soviet Alexander Kotov was born on 12 August 1913 in Tula. He moved to Moscow in 1939 to study engineering and here he learnt to play chess. His peak World Ranking was 3rd (September 1950). His peak rating according to Chessmetrics is 2753. He was one of the best ten players in the world between 1949 and 1953.

He participated in the 1952 Helsinki and 1954 Amsterdam Chess Olympiads representing the Soviet Union, winning team gold medal both times.

One of his best early results was a second place in the 1939 Soviet Chess Championship. He just missed out to Mikhail Botvinnik in the last round. Based on his results he got the Soviet Grandmaster title. He was the third Soviet player who was awarded with this title after Botvinnik and Levenfish.

Kotov was a great fan of Chess World Champion Alexander Alekhine and he wrote a comprehensive two-volume biography on his life and chess career “Alekhine’s chess legacy”. It was published in Russian, German, Serbian, Spanish and Czech.

He died on 8 January 1981 in Moscow.