Vlastimil Fiala Books

The best account of chess career of the Fourth World's chess champion A. Alekhine. The Third volume covers Alekhine's chess activities in 1925-1927. It was the busy period when Alekhine was poised to seize the world crown from Capablanca, covering several strong events (Paris and Badem-Baden in 1925, Hastings 1925-26, Semmering and Dresden in 1926, New York and Kecskemet in 1927) plus a host of simultaneous exhibitions. Includes contemporary accounts of events such as his amazing 25/28 world-breaking blindfold simultanoues at Paris in 1925, where Alekhine had to be lifted out of his armchar at the end of his 13-hour, 29-cigarrete marathon and detailed description of all known Alekhine's simul exhibitions at France, Switzerland, Czechoslovakia, the Netherlands, Hungary, etc. The book contains 297 games, almost of them are fully annotated, Indexes of the players and openings, large photograph section.

The best account of chess career of the Fourth World's chess champion A. Alekhine. The First volume covers Alekhine's chess activities in 1892-1921. Czech historians are tracking down the games of the legendary Russian world champion. This volume begins with chess notebooks from Alekhine's childhood, charts his development into a world class player by St. Petersburg 1914, his detention and escape during World War One and his narrow scrape with the authoritites in Soviet Russia. As well the 334 games scores, some with notes, there are reproduction photos as a fascinating biography (British Chess Magazine review). Indexes of the players and openings.

Mit diesem Roman wurde Robert Merle weltberühmt. Wenige Jahre nach dem Krieg und bereits 1957 in deutscher Übersetzung, erschien dieser authentische Roman über die Geschichte des Lagerkommandanten von Auschwitz: Es ist die Psychostudie eines Massenmörders von der Kindheit bis zur Hinrichtung. Nach den Dokumenten des Nürnberger Prozesses schildert Merle die langsame "Perfektionierung" der Todesfabrik von Auschwitz. Nicht Bosheit oder Brutalität brachten diesen Mann dazu, täglich unschuldige Menschen zu Tausenden zu vernichten, sondern seine Vorstellung von Ehre, Gründlichkeit und Respekt vor einem Staat und seinen Führern - "ein Mann der Pflicht", so Merle, "und gerade darin ist er ein Ungeheuer". Eine hochaktuelle, fesselnde Lektüre zum Thema Auschwitz gerade für junge Leser.

1572. La France des guerres de religion est devenue le champ clos des grands seigneurs et des prétendants au trône. A Paris, le jeune roi protestant de Navarre, le futur Henri IV, vient d'épouser Marguerite de Valois, dite Margot ; mariage politique qui n'empêche pas les Guise et le roi Charles IX de fomenter les horreurs de la Saint-Barthélemy. Sur les pas du jeune comte de La Mole, dont s'éprend éperdument la belle Margot, et de son compagnon, le tonitruant Annibal de Coconnas, nous entrons dans ce labyrinthe d'intrigues, d'alliances, de trahisons. Les poignards luisent sous les pourpoints. René le Florentin fournit les poisons à l'implacable Catherine de Médicis. Le vieux Louvre avec ses fêtes brillantes, ses passages secrets, son peuple de soldats et de jolies femmes, est le théâtre où se déploient en mille péripéties les jeux de l'amour, de la politique, de la haine. Le père des Trois Mousquetaires nous en donne une passionnante chronique, où sa pétulante bonne humeur survit aux plus sanglants épisodes.

Autor se zamýšlí nad tvorbou francouzského malíře, jenž vynikal v malbě krajinářské i figurální, zapsal se významně do historie moderní knižní ilustrace a zapůsobil i na vývoj některých našich malířů, jako byli B. Piskač, A. Justitz, F. Muzika, J. Trampota, B. Kubišta, R. Kremlička, V.Špála a a jiné..

Matisse, the bard of colour, and Picasso, the breaker of moulds: together, these two giants shaped the world of modern art. They were, as Picasso once said, "North Pole, South Pole." The work of Henri Matisse (1869-1954) is a sensous hymn to colour, that wild yet subtle colour which he tamed, mastered and managed, and which expressed his feelings towards women and the world. Colour was the tool with which he controlled line, arabesque, volume, light transparency, reflection and space, and though he did not shrink from pushing his creativity to the verge of abstraction, he never succumbed to it entirely. It was an approach well noted by America's Abstract Expressionists. This new and carefully conceived freedom marked not only the extraordinary significance of the painter and sculptor Matisse in the history of modern art, but also his influence, which was no less decisive than that of his main rival, Pablo Picasso. In fact, Matisse's stylistic liberation actually goes one step further in the pursuit of his own personal goal - the perfect synthesis of line and colour - by which he sought revolutionary approaches to the great tradition of French painting by drawing upon its classical aspects.