Book Recommendation- GM History

Hi All

Could you please suggest any book which talks about famous GMs we ever had and their playing styles. Any suggestion is much appreciated.

Thanks!

My great predecessors - Kasparov

My great predecessors is the best work for learning about the world champions that came before Kasparov.

There are many books on specific players, like Morphy, Fischer, Carlsen and so on.

There is a good book on Botvinnik by Isaak and Vladimir Linder who are writing a series of books on World Champions. It is a nice mix of games and history.

There are also some good books written by the players themselves e.g. Mind Master by Anand, Life and Games of Mikhail Tal

"Chess Duels", by Yasser Seirawan is a book that I really enjoyed. Seirawan talks about his personal encounters with most of the modern world champions. (Bobby Fischer, Smyslov, Tal, Petrosian, Spassky, Karpov, and of course, Gary Kasparov). The book includes anecdotes about all the players, comments about their playing styles, what was going on in the world during their time, and how they were seen by the rest of the chess world. It's written in Seirawan's usual conversational writing style - like he's sitting there next to you. Lots of well-annotated games. A fun and easy-to-read book. 

 I recommend Edward Laskers book Chess Secrets I learned from the Masters.  It is a fascinating and warm look at many of the Masters he encountered during his time in Chess.  He includes games still from a time when there were still questions about the opening theory, and computers did not preanalyze 20-30 moves possibilities.  His personality insights, and tournament recollections are really what the book.  For instance he met a young Sammy Reshevsky and played him and showed him around when he first arrived in the US.  He has games with his comments starting from the local GO club as boy in Germany, to much later in his career.  There are also caricatures of the players.  An enjoyable read, with games to enjoy.

Kasparov’s five volume work shines because he collates much of what others have written, adds a bit of his own perspective, and presents variations suggested by Fritz. He’s not a historian so the documentation is weak and dubious facts pass unverified. Nonetheless, his books give a good sense of the times of each World Champion and the best players who fell short. They are an excellent primer on chess history from McDonnell and de Labourdonnais to Kasparov himself.

Masters of the Chessboard by Richard Reti

Timman's Titans by Jan Timman

Learn From The Legends by Mihail Marin

The World's Great Chess Games by Reuben Fine

The focus of these books are the great chess legends of the past, their playing styles, including their well-known and/or instructive games.

Not sure if you only want books that cover multiple players in one volume, but, assuming not, the "Move by Move" series by Everyman Chess is good. Just search on "'inset player name' move by move" and most of the big names are covered.

I also like the book "Why Lasker Matters" as a reappraisal of a classic era player that the moderns misunderstood and forgot about.