A number of major successes followed and his rating was over 2600 for a decade, but there was a nagging feeling that he never reached his full potential. That may have been because, according to Dolmatov, "...I had a ... stable life in which I was satisfied with everything. I strived...to achieve the best possible results...but I didn’t set myself super-objectives."
Born in Kiselevsk in western Siberia, he learned to play from his father, a mining engineer, and by the time he finished high school he already possessed the Soviet Master title. In 1975 he entered the Faculty of Economics at Moscow State University. While there he came to the attention of super trainer Mark Dvoretsky.
Dolmatov had a solid yet enterprising style and was awarded the IM title the same year he became a GM, in 1982. By the time the early 2000s rolled around he had become pretty much inactive and had become a chess writer and trainer.
In the following game Dolmatov crushes Bent Larsen after Larsen moves his
Q six consecutive times and finally has to resign because his B is going to be trapped.
The game was played in a tournament sponsored by IBM in Amsterdam in June of 1980. World Champion Anatoly Karpov dominated the event.
Sergey Dolmatov–Bent Larsen1–0E54Amsterdam IBM05.07.1980Stockfish 15
Nimzo-Indian: Rubinstein Variation 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.c4 f6 5.c3 e6 6.f3 b4 7.d3 What started out as a Panov Attack in the
Caro-Kann has transposed into the Nimzo-Indian. dxc4 8.xc4 0-0 9.0-0 a6
At the time this move had little theory available and the usual reply was
either 9...Nc6 or 9...b6. Today the latter move is seen most often, but in any
case, all variations seem to lead to a high percentage of draws. 10.a3 e7 11.a2 b5 Dolamtov was of the opinion that black should have continued with
11...Nc6, although 12.Re1 would have retained an advantage for white. Actually,
engines prefer 11...b5 11...c6 12.g5 d5 13.xd5 exd5 14.xe7 xe7
and the gane was soon drawn. Bajarani,U (2515)-Matsenko,S (2521) Irving,
California 2019 12.d5 exd5 12...xd5 13.xd5 exd5 14.xd5 a7 with
equal chances. Muir,A (2303)-Paschall,W (2401) Budapest 2004 13.xd5 b7
This logical looking continuation allows white to gain the upper hand. 13...xd5 14.xd5 xd5 15.xd5 a7 with equality. 14.xe7+ xe7 15.g5 bd7 16.e1 To the untrained eye this position may look quite equal, but GMs and
engines understand what's going on! As Dolmatov pointed out, a struggle is
developing around the d5-square and if black manages an exchange of Bs with ...
Bd5, then white's advantage will be reduced to a minimum. Therefore the idea
behind 16.Re1 was to drive the Q back to d8 thereby preventing ...Rad8 c5
Dolmatov gave this move a ? stating that 16...Qd8 was better because after
four further moves the Q has to return to d8 anyway and probably Larsen had
not anticipated the forced return of the Q to d8 and was leaving this square
for the R. Curiously, both Stockfish and Komodo like Larsen's move better. 16...d8 Engines think this move is twice as bad as the text. 17.d4 b4 18.axb4 b6 19.f5 b5 20.e7+ h8 21.f4 a5 21...xb4 22.d6 22.d4 axb4 23.c4 c5 24.xc5 xc5 25.f5 This position may look drawish, but white
won all 5 Shootouts. His pieces are more active and black was unable to defend
his b-Pawn and eventually lost it. 17.e3 f5 After this black does,
indeed, land in trouble; the Q should have continued its journey two more
squares. 17...h5 18.g5 xd1 19.axd1 e5 20.d4 c4 21.xc4 bxc4 22.xf6 gxf6 23.h3 White has all the play, but black may be able to
successfully defend his position. 17...h5 18.d4 g6 Threatening mate. 19.f3 fe8 20.c1 d5 White has the more active position, but black is far
from lost. 18.h4 e4 This move is the move that Stockfish pinpoints as
being the one that quickly loses the game. 18...e5 at least has the
advantage of not making his position any worse. There is no immediate way for
white to capitalize on the position of black's Q opposite the R. 19.f4 c7 20.c1 a5 21.f5 b4 22.d6 d5 As mentioned in the note way back on move
16, this is an important exchange for black. 23.xd5 xd5 24.axb4 xd1 25.exd1 fb8 White is clearly better, but black can fight on. 19.g5 c6 20.c1 b6 21.e3 d8 22.f5 e4 23.d6 g6 24.d4 White completely
dominates the position. b8 Black is lost and this is a reasonable plan: his
idea is to play ...Rd8 and ...Nf8. Against this white must act energetically. 25.f4 d8 25...h6 In view of the fact that black's B is going to get
trapped, this move making an escape square might look reasonable, but it will
also lose. 26.f5 h7 27.f2 a5 28.xf7 xf7 29.e7 xf5 30.xf7+ h8 30...f8 31.ce1 d8 32.d6 b8 33.c5 xd6 34.xd6 30...h7 31.d5
wins 31.ce1 White is winning. 26.f5 h5 27.h3 b6 28.xb6 xb6 29.xb6 xd6 30.e3 Black resigned. He has no satisfactory defense against 31.g4
1–0
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