Shameless self-promotion:
In case you haven’t noticed, I have an iPhone app, Game of Ur.
Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, I would like to tell you how I came to be interested in this 5,000-year-old game.
It started innocently enough. I was having dinner with friends. They talked about cuneiform writing and Youtube videos by a curator at the British Museum named Irving Finkel. Now, if you try to create a mental picture of how Hollywood would cast someone to play this role, they could not do a better job than to hire the original Finkel himself. I will not spoil your imagined image here. Instead, watch his video about deciphering the rules for this game. Go ahead, I’ll wait…
While you’re at it, you should also watch him play the game. Were you able to watch these without subscribing to his channel? I thought not.
It did not take long, and I bought a replica of the game from Amazon.
One of the other games I play at home is called Swift programming, and my app was the result. We still play the board game version at home. I also use my app to play it as a fidget toy on my iPhone. For simple distraction, I set the level at easy and relax. If my mood is a bit more intense, I’ll ratchet the level up to hard.
I just released an update that implements what I call the “Finkel Flick.” When you’re capturing a piece, give it a little dismissive flick off the board. I do not recommend this maneuver on the replica board, though. When you flick the piece, it has an annoying tendency to roll across the table, fall to the floor, and seek the most inconvenient spot under something. It is much safer to indulge in flicking in the app.