The third book about the work of Mikhail Tal covers the period 1968-1973, characterized not only by brilliant ups (two gold medals were won at the European team championships, one each at the World Olympiad and the USSR Championship, seven international tournaments were won), but also although rare, but very sensitive falls (losing a match to B. Larsen, failures at the XXXVII and XLI national championships, the interzonal tournament in 1973). In the next cycle of the fight for the world championship, Tal reached the semi-final candidates match, in which he lost with a minimal score to the “traditionally awkward "To Viktor Korchnoi. At the end of 1969, the painful “second front” was finally closed - the fight against a diseased kidney ended with its removal (literally and figuratively) from the battlefield... The period under review is also curious for the emergence of new “traditions” , for example, the habit of losing games in the last round and setting unique and, it seemed, completely impossible records for his style and character. We are talking about Tal's famous unbeaten streaks: 86 games from July 1972 to April 1973 and 97 games from October 1973 to October 1974. It was then that a discussion arose on the topic “old and new Tal”. But, no matter how banal it may sound, Tal is always Tal, as readers can see after reading this book. Compiled by V. F. Kirillov