Riff Raff

Vital Statistics

• Name: Shawn McHorse
• Rank: Double Digit Kyu
  • KGS: GleepWurp 13k ( rank graph | game history)
• Born: February 21st, 1975
• Location: Austin, Texas, USA
• AGA Member: #9688

Sub-pages

• Go Software Reviews
• My library of Go books
• Recent Study

Personal Web Sites

• RockyMusic.org - The Musical World of Rocky Horror
• Queerios! - Austin Rocky Horror Picture Show Cast
• Shawn.McHorse.com - Photography

Go Background

I am a lifelong casual go player. I've been to meetings of the Austin Go Club many times over the years, but probably no more than two or three times in any given year. The same thing can be said of KGS and before that existed IGS. I am very much on again off again in my study of the game, and if anything my biggest issue is that I've spent significantly more time studying and reading than actually playing. I have a great love of Go Books, and have at times obsessively collected them.

My actual first exposure to Go was around age eight or so, when both my father and I were introduced to it by our next door neighbor who had a MENSA group that met once a month to play. After having been soundly beaten by my father at Chess regardless of what handicap he offered, it was refreshing to discover a strategy game that seemed to come to me intuitively. We both developed an interest in the game, and my father started off our study with the Go for Beginners and Graded Go Problems for Beginners books from Ishi Press. While those provided excellent guidance, I was unfortunately also exposed to a borrowed copy of the original Basic Techniques of Go (now and forever my Least Favorite Go Book).

Links

Pages I particularly like at SL

• Beginner Study Section
• Famous Go Games
• Haeng-Ma Tutorial for Beginners
• If Life Were Like Hikaru No Go
• Pages for Beginners

• Dieter
• DrStraw
• Gronk
• velobici

• BQM 260
• BQM 260 / Earlier Play

SL Reference Pages

• Overview of fuseki patterns
• Joseki pages
• Joseki Quick Reference
• The nine standard enclosures
• Unusual enclosures

Other Sites

• Alejo's Tenuki
• Annotated Go Bibliographies (stopped being updated around 2004)
• Audio Go Lessons (by Guo Juan)
• Baduk Made Fun and Easy from The Korea Times (lessons 90+)
• ChiyoDad Learns Go
• Eric S. Piotrowski's 3D Go Art
• gnugo4win (not in English, but hardly matters for GnuGo binary downloads)
• Go4Go.net
• GoBase.org
• Go Bestiary (commented by Denis Feldman)
• Go Books (by Nemir)
• GoDiscussions.com
• GoGameWorld.com
• GoProblems.com
• The Go Teaching Ladder
• HilltopGo.com
• Kuroki Goishi
• The Magic of Go (online only columns)
• The Magic of Go from The Daily Yomiuri (printed columns #282 - 428)
• Mind Sports Zine (stopped being updated in April 2001)
• Minoru Harada Tsumego
• MultiGo
• New In Go
• Nihon Ki-in News
• Pronunciation of Japanese Go Terms
• Robert Jasiek's ISBN Rating List
• Wings Across Calm Water Go Club

Recent Play

Been awhile since I've played, really. Have gotten married and been doing other things in the interim, such as hiking, Yoga, and Kuk Sool Won. Am looking forward to things settling down a bit now, and perhaps having a bit more time for Go in the near future.

Personal Info

I'm a thirty two year old Java Programmer from Austin, Texas. I have been working on the poker client used by PokerPages, PokerSchool Online, and BugsysClub for the past five years. The 'Riff Raff' nickname stems from my now fourteen year long obsession with The Rocky Horror Picture Show. See also my web sites: RockyMusic.org and Queerios!.