He has competed in international chess tournaments several times, achieving valuable victories in single games, including in 1947 in Warsaw (in this tournament he defeated, among others, Bogdan Śliwa), 1950 in Szczawno-Zdrój (victories with Paul Keres , in the tournament, however, he took XV-XVI place for twenty participants), 1951 in Mariánské Lázně (won against Pal Benko) and 1952 in Międzyzdroje. In 1952 he represented Poland at 10th Chess Olympiad. Political conditions meant that Pytlakowski was chosen to play on the 2nd chessboard (well above his real strength of the game), and as a consequence his performance was unsuccessful (he scored ½ points in 7 games). In 1955 he appeared in Łódź in a match against USSR, in which he scored 1 point in 2 games (he defeated Semyon Furman). In the years 1951–1957 he won the title of Champion of the Polish Armed Forces five times, in Legia Warsaw he was also the Polish Chess Team champion in 1961, 1963, 1964 and 1972, runner-up in 1968, bronze medalist in 1966.