He qualified twice for the Candidates Tournament for the World Chess Championship. In the 1988 Candidates Tournament for the 1990 Classical Chess World Championship he was defeated in the round of 16 (the first match) by Jan Timman (+0−1=5). In the Candidates Tournament for the 1996 FIDE World Chess Championship he won his first two matches against Alexander Khalifman (+4−0=2) and Jan Timman (+2−1=5) to reach the quarterfinals, where he was defeated by Gata Kamsky (+0−4=3).