In my research for folklore of the Faeries of Ireland and Chess I stumbled across two pawn formations that have Irish names and while they may have weaknesses they do have some validity. So if you come across them do not panic. Study the games provided and your own and you may find the luck of the Irish in your game.
History.
There are arguments in both academic and ecclesiastical circles as to whether this pawn formation is due to Ireland being a Roman Catholic country, where the Holy Trinity is a pillar of Christian belief – perhaps due to the formation resembling a pillar comprised of a trinity of pawns.
The first one is the Irish Pawn Formation. It consists of three pawns on one file.
Pawn: E3
Pawn: E4
Pawn: E5
The second one, supposedly the Irish school of Chess is working on an opening using this structure, is called "The Shamrock."
Pawn: D4
Pawn: E3
Pawn: F4
Pawn: E5
About Me
Bobby Fischer
Alot has been written about his chess and possibly even more about the rest of his life. The impression given by the literature (and by comments he has made in interviews) is that he's just an unpleasant person. Of course, that's not a good reason for putting him so far down the list. However, there is also something lacking in his chess. His play is often brutal and he's always forcing things. Much of his chess, though tactically brilliant and strategically powerful, lacks any kind of subtlety (not to be confused with depth or vision - the fact that Fischer's opponents didn't know what was going on does not make his play subtle, just too deep for them to appreciate). Subtlety is a sign of a player's calibre and of his positional feeling. Fischer's game relies heavily on opening preparation and I think that without it, his results would have been far less impressive. I think that this is less true of the players above him on this list (with the possible exception of Kasparov, though I still feel that Kasparov is fundamentally a stronger player than Fischer).
Garry Kasparov
World champion for 15 years and perhaps the greatest tactician of all time. He held the title of world champion from 1985 until 2000 (When he was beaten somewhat unconvincingly by Kramnik) and dominated major tournaments from the beginning of his reign (challenged only briefly by Anand) until 2001. His results do not fully reveal his talents and only by playing through some of his games can his true genius be seen. He was sometimes described as a ten eyed monster who saw everything in all positions (this quotation has been repeated with different numbers of eyes by different people - ten seems reasonable). He was exuberant and showy and had a photographic memory. He was, of all players, the most computer-like in tactical ability with incredible tactical vision and yet he possessed a profound positional understanding and had the deepest opening preparation in history.
José Raúl Capablanca
Certainly the greatest natural talent of all time, he was sometimes extremely lazy and refused to "waste" time reading chess textbooks. However, he did make considerable contributions to opening theory so it is probable that he did spend some time on his openings. He had a score of 318 wins, 249 draws, and only 34 losses in match and tournament play between 1909 and 1939 1 2. No other master has sustained so few losses over such a period of time. When asked how many moves he looked ahead his reply was "One move, the best move", and this probably holds more than a grain of truth. Capablanca was renowned for his ability to instantly and accurately evaluate chess positions. Perhaps, of all the chess players through history only he had such an accurate evaluation function. Capablanca liked to control the position and to focus only on elements he felt were necessary to achieve victory. His endgame technique was legendary. It is often said that you can discover the true strength of a player by looking at how he handles endgames. If this is the case then Capablanca was the strongest player of all time.
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