In 1996, Dautov won (jointly with Artur Yusupov) the international German Chess Championship, he finished second in the championship of 1999. In the late 1990s he won tournaments in Bad Homburg (1997), Seefeld (1997), Essen (1999) (shared with Vadim Zvjaginsev, Emil Sutovsky and Larry Christiansen) and Deizisau 2002 (amongst others shared with Vladimir Epishin and Levon Aronian). He participated in the FIDE World Chess Championship 2002 and the FIDE World Chess Championship 2004, where he was knocked out in the second and first round respectively.