Igor Bondarevsky played in the 5thRussian Championship, Gorky 1935, scoring 4/9 points for a tied 6-7th place; the winner was Alexander Tolush. The next year, he won an All-Union first category tournament in Leningrad, with 11½/14, unbeaten, by two points. This result earned him an invitation to the Soviet championship to be played the next year. At Moscow 1937, his first international event, Bondarevsky struggled with a score of 2½/7, for a tied 7-8th place; the winner was Reuben Fine; however, he recovered with a solid performance in his first Soviet Chess Championship, with 9½/19 and a shared 10-12th place; the winner was Grigory Levenfish. Bondarevsky qualified from the 11th USSR championship semifinal 1938 with 10½/17, for a shared 3rd-4th place; the winner was Mikhail Botvinnik. Another disappointing performance followed at the very strong international Leningrad-Moscow event in 1939 with only 5/17 for 17th place; the winner was Salo Flohr.
Bondarevsky joined the Soviet élite by placing sixth at the 11th USSR Championship, Leningrad 1939, with 10/17, a performance sufficient to automatically qualify him for the 12th final. He reached his career peak the following year by sharing first place with Andor Lilienthal at the 12th USSR championship, Moscow 1940, ahead of Paul Keres, Isaac Boleslavsky and Botvinnik. Surprisingly there has been no play-off between the two winners, instead of an "Absolute USSR Championship" in 1941 was arranged, staged in Leningrad and Moscow, an unprecedented four-cycle competition of six grandmasters called the match tournament for the title of Absolute USSR Champion between the top six finishers of the 12th final. This was one of the strongest tournaments ever held up to then, with six of the world's top fifteen players. Botvinnik who failed badly in the regular championship 1940 won that additional event in 1941, with the runner-up being Keres, after which came Boleslavsky, Vasily Smyslov, Lilienthal and Bondarevsky in last place. Bondarevsky played in the 1948 Interzonal at Saltsjöbaden, sharing sixth-ninth place, and qualifying for the Candidates Tournament at Budapest 1950, but he was unable to play because of illness. Thereafter he played only a few tournaments, a notable result being his second place behind Svetozar Gligorić at the Hastings Congress 1960/61. He was among the 27 players named International Grandmaster in 1950 by the World Chess Federation on its inaugural list. He was awarded the International Arbiter title in 1954, and the International Grandmaster of Correspondence Chess title in 1961.
