In the 1969 World Championship cycle, he tied for 3rd–5th places at the URS-ch34, held at Tbilisi 1966–67, with 12/20, and emerged from a three-way playoff, along with GM Aivars Gipslis, at Tallinn 1967, to the Interzonal, staged at Sousse, Tunisia, later that year. A strong performance at the Interzonal, with 14/22, for a shared 2nd–4th place, took him through to the Candidates' matches. In his first match, he defeated American GM Samuel Reshevsky at Amsterdam in 1968 by (+3=5). His next opponent was GM Mikhail Tal, against whom Korchnoi had a large plus score in previous meetings. The match, held in Moscow 1968, was close, but Korchnoi won by (+2−1=7), and moved on to face GM Boris Spassky in the Candidates' final. Spassky prevailed at Kiev 1968, winning (+4−1=5).