Tom Scott vs Irving Finkel: The Royal Game of Ur | PLAYTHROUGH | International Tabletop Day 2017
Why Hacker News recommends it
Recommended in threads on ancient games and cuneiform as a charming match with an enthusiastic expert.
What it is
Tom Scott plays the Royal Game of Ur against British Museum curator Irving Finkel, who deciphered its rules from a cuneiform tablet. Finkel teaches the game and explains its history as the oldest playable board game.
Recommended by 6 HN commenters across 5 different months, 2019 to 2025.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec jedimastert · 2019-12 · on “How writing began, and other unexpectedly funny stories about cuneiform [video]”
He really is. He's got two incredible videos with Tom Scott where the two of them play what could be considered the worlds oldest game[0] and he introduces Tom and Matt to "writing" cuneiform[1]. He's so sharp in both, I love seeing him anywhere else now. [0]: [this video] [1]: [LINK]
Strong rec sothatsit · 2025-11 · on “Why I'm Learning Sumerian”
I was lucky enough to meet Irving Finkel a couple of times and he is as eccentric in person as he is in his brilliant lectures, talks, and videos. When I met him all the shelves, and even the floor, in his office was covered with different books, papers, and artifacts. He has amassed quite a collection of interesting things. I met him through my work related to the Royal Game of Ur, which he also did a fantastic video on with Tom Scott: [this video]
Recommends jhallenworld · 2020-02 · on “Senet: the original board game of death?”
I've gotten into ancient games recently, and I've tried Senet with various rule variations- I think it's kind of boring. I like much better the Royal Game of Ur- [this video] I've also been playing with Indian Pachisi, two player is kind of boring, but I still need to try four player / doubles.
Recommends acheron · 2021-07 · on “Senet”
There’s a great video on YouTube of Irving Finkel (quite an interesting guy) playing the Royal Game of Ur. [this video]
Recommends mabub24 · 2021-07 · on “Senet”
You might be thinking of Ur, which is roughly 4,500 years old. This is an interesting video from Dr. Irving Finkel on it and its playing rules.[0] [0]: [this video]
Recommends yreg · 2023-06 · on “Turn dumb tweets into cuneiform tablets”
Irving Finkel made a video with Tom Scott, playing the game of Ur. I enjoyed the interaction. [this video] I'm sure he has many other even better videos, but I will have to yet get to them.
Cites jhallenworld · 2020-06 · on “How dice changed over 2k years to be more fair (2018)”
I've been trying other non-roman dice: Indian four-sided dice: [LINK] Two-sided dice (cowry shells) for Indian Pachisi- they are terrible! [LINK] More binary dice for the Royal Game of Ur: [this video]
Cites Rendello · 2021-02 · on “How to write cuneiform”
He also taught Tom to play The Royal Game of Ur [1], a Middle-Eastern precursor to Backgammon that was the Chess of that era in terms of popularity. Irving was the one to decipher the rules from a cuneiform tablet. 1. [this video]