Chess Book Suggestions?

I have more than enough books on strategy, openings, endgames, and what not. I'm really interested in books that are more about the players and some of the history of chess events.

For example, "Bobby Fischer takes on the world," or "End Game." I really enjoyed reading these books and am having trouble finding other books about chess and chess players without have them be annotated games with a bit of insight into the player at the time of the games.

Any suggestions on some titles?

Thanks Paulgottlieb. I will have a look around Amazon for this book. Does anyone else have some suggestions?

petrosian v the elite very good book

"Tal the Magnificent" might interest you.

Kasparov's On My Great Predecessors is such an obvious choice I don't know why it hasn't been mentioned yet. It's a bit expensive (5 hardback volumes), but it contains almost every important game played up to 1984. There are two serious problems with the series: the authors don't cite their sources and they repeat stories that have been proven to be untrue.

Other than that, it's probably the best analytical work on the history of our game ever compiled. And yeah, there are some analytical errors made even in this book. But WOW! it's amazing!

A good book on the anthropology of chess is Counterplay byRobert Desjarlais. The author discusses the culture and thinking of the contemporary chess player. It's quite a fascinating read, but it gets a bit repetitive toward the end. It's definitely worth the read!

From a Dutch perspective, perhaps The King: Chess Pieces, by J. H. Donner. The review is of the first English hardcover edition, but there's a newer paperback edition with a little more content.

http://www.chesscafe.com/text/donner.pdf

I found the review for the paperback edition:

http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review554.pdf

Karpov's strategic Wins 1 and 2. It has good historical account of Karpov's wins and development as a chess player.

Lawson - Paul Morphy: The Pride and Sorrow of Chess

Thanks for all the great suggestions. My birthday is coming up in a couple months and I will be looking into all of these.

Have a great day, and anymore suggestions would be great as well.

Mortal Games (The turbulent genius of Garry Kasparov) by Fred Waitzkin might be something you are looking for; no games, just the story behind the 1990 match with Karpov, the pogrom in Baku, and a lot of human insight into players like Kasparov, Karpov, Kamsky, Anand, Gelfand, etc.

Thanks Dashkee. These are the type of boosk that I'm really looking for!

The Best of the Best 1000 by Chess Informant

Your chess book collection is incomplete without it.

"Grandmasters of Chess" by Schonberg.

This is a great book with each Chapter being a mini biography of all the greats. It posts a game of interest for each, but no analysis, just commentary on why it was a great game.

The stories about these Grandmasters are awsome. I read the book in two days. Highly reccommended.

Also, a good book on the History of Chess:

"The Immortal Game" by Shenk

Very informative.

Life and Games of Michael Tal - by Tal himself. Great stories in between the games. (This site claims it as a free download...no idea : 

http://www.freebookspot.es/Comments.aspx?Element_ID=153378 )

Chess Catachism by Larry Evans, very entertaining http://www.amazon.com/Chess-Catechism-Larry-evans/dp/0671204912

One more fascinating book on the 2nd Piatigorsky cup tournament:

http://www.amazon.com/Second-Piatigorsky-Hardinge-Simpole-Classics/dp/1843820633

This one is interesting because many of the games have annotations by both players, working independently, before computers. Also a fun read. 

Agreed

I'll second The Life and Games of Mikhail Tal.  It has some annotated games, but also a lot of very funny stories.  He was a great writer.

The Op asked for

"For example, "Bobby Fischer takes on the world," or "End Game." I really enjoyed reading these books and am having trouble finding other books about chess and chess players without have them be annotated games with a bit of insight into the player at the time of the games."

Your suggestion is a book that only contains annotated games! There's no narrative in that book at all!

One book I enjoyed is Chess Secrets by Emmanuel Lasker.  It is a memoir of sorts in which he talks about many of the great players of his time while also giving demo games.