Dominoes is a family of
tile-based game
A tile-based game is a game that uses tiles as one of the fundamental elements of play. Traditional tile-based games use small tiles as playing pieces for gambling or entertainment games. Some board games use tiles to create their board, givin ...
s played with gaming pieces, commonly known as dominoes. Each domino is a rectangular tile, usually with a line dividing its face into two square ''ends''. Each end is marked with a number of spots (also called ''
pips'' or ''dots'') or is blank. The backs of the tiles in a set are indistinguishable, either blank or having some common design. The gaming pieces make up a
domino set
The following is a glossary of terms used in dominoes. Besides the terms listed here, there are numerous regional or local slang terms. Terms in this glossary should not be game-specific, i.e. specific to one particular version of dominoes, but ap ...
, sometimes called a ''deck'' or ''pack''. The traditional European domino set consists of 28 tiles, also known as pieces, bones, rocks, stones, men, cards or just dominoes, featuring all combinations of spot counts between zero and six. A domino set is a generic gaming device, similar to
playing card
A playing card is a piece of specially prepared card stock, heavy paper, thin cardboard, plastic-coated paper, cotton-paper blend, or thin plastic that is marked with distinguishing motifs. Often the front (face) and back of each card has a fi ...
s or
dice
Dice (singular die or dice) are small, throwable objects with marked sides that can rest in multiple positions. They are used for generating random values, commonly as part of tabletop games, including dice games, board games, role-playing g ...
, in that a variety of games can be played with a set. Another form of entertainment using domino pieces is the practice of
domino toppling
Domino toppling is the activity of standing up dominoes in sequence known as a domino run and then triggering the first one in line to create a chain reaction also called the domino effect. A competition between two or more players to be first to ...
.
![Benen dominospel in houten doos, objectnr 77675](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/75/Benen_dominospel_in_houten_doos%2C_objectnr_77675.JPG)
The earliest mention of dominoes is from
Song dynasty
The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the rest ...
China found in the text ''Former Events in Wulin'' by Zhou Mi (1232–1298).
[Lo, Andrew. "The Game of Leaves: An Inquiry into the Origin of Chinese Playing Cards," ''Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies'', University of London, Vol. 63, No. 3 (2000): 389-406.] Modern dominoes first appeared in Italy during the 18th century, but they differ from
Chinese dominoes
Chinese dominoes are used in several tile-based games, namely, tien gow, pai gow, tiu u and kap tai shap. In Cantonese they are called (), which literally means "bone tiles"; it is also the name of a northern Chinese game, where the rules are qu ...
in a number of respects, and there is no confirmed link between the two. European dominoes may have developed independently, or Italian missionaries in China may have brought the game to Europe.
The name "domino" is probably derived from the resemblance to a kind of
carnival costume worn during the
Venetian Carnival
The Carnival of Venice ( it, Carnevale di Venezia) is an annual festival held in Venice, Italy. The carnival ends on Shrove Tuesday (''Martedì Grasso'' or Mardi Gras), which is the day before the start of Lent on Ash Wednesday. The festival i ...
, often consisting of a black-hooded robe and a white mask. Despite the coinage of the word "
polyomino
A polyomino is a plane geometric figure formed by joining one or more equal squares edge to edge. It is a polyform whose cells are squares. It may be regarded as a finite subset of the regular square tiling.
Polyominoes have been used in pop ...
" as a generalization, there is no connection between the word "domino" and the number 2 in any language.
The most commonly played domino games are Domino Whist,
Matador
A bullfighter (or matador) is a performer in the activity of bullfighting. ''Torero'' () or ''toureiro'' (), both from Latin ''taurarius'', are the Spanish and Portuguese words for bullfighter and describe all the performers in the activit ...
, and
Muggins
Muggins, sometimes also called All Fives, is a domino game played with any of the commonly available sets. Although suitable for up to four players, Muggins is described by John McLeod as "a good, quick two player game". (All Fives). Other popular forms include
Texas 42
42, also known as Texas 42, is a trick-taking game played with a standard set of double six dominoes. 42 is often referred to as the "state game of Texas". Tournaments are held in many towns, and the State Championship tournament is held annual ...
,
Chicken Foot, Concentration, Double Fives, and
Mexican Train
Mexican Train is a game played with dominoes. The object of the game is for a player to play all the tiles from his or her hand onto one or more chains, or trains, emanating from a central hub or "station". The game's most popular name comes from ...
.
In Britain, the most popular league and pub game is
Fives and Threes
Muggins, sometimes also called All Fives, is a domino game played with any of the commonly available sets. Although suitable for up to four players, Muggins is described by John McLeod as "a good, quick two player game". .
Dominoes have sometimes been used for
divination
Divination (from Latin ''divinare'', 'to foresee, to foretell, to predict, to prophesy') is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic, standardized process or ritual. Used in various forms throughout histor ...
, such as
bone throwing
Methods of divination can be found around the world, and many cultures practice the same methods under different names. During the Middle Ages, scholars coined terms for many of these methods—some of which had hitherto been unnamed—in Mediev ...
in Chinese culture and in the African diaspora.
Construction and composition of domino sets
European-style dominoes are traditionally made of bone, silver lip ocean pearl oyster shell (mother of pearl),
ivory
Ivory is a hard, white material from the tusks (traditionally from elephants) and teeth of animals, that consists mainly of dentine, one of the physical structures of teeth and tusks. The chemical structure of the teeth and tusks of mammals is ...
, or a dark hardwood such as
ebony
Ebony is a dense black/brown hardwood, coming from several species in the genus ''Diospyros'', which also contains the persimmons. Unlike most woods, ebony is dense enough to sink in water. It is finely textured and has a mirror finish when pol ...
, with contrasting black or white pips (
inlaid
Inlay covers a range of techniques in sculpture and the decorative arts for inserting pieces of contrasting, often colored materials into depressions in a base object to form Ornament (art), ornament or pictures that normally are flush with th ...
or
paint
Paint is any pigmented liquid, liquefiable, or solid mastic composition that, after application to a substrate in a thin layer, converts to a solid film. It is most commonly used to protect, color, or provide texture. Paint can be made in many ...
ed). Some sets feature the top half thickness in MOP, ivory, or bone, with the lower half in ebony. Alternatively, domino sets have been made from many different natural materials: stone (e.g.,
marble
Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite. Marble is typically not Foliation (geology), foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the ...
,
granite
Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...
or
soapstone
Soapstone (also known as steatite or soaprock) is a talc-schist, which is a type of metamorphic rock. It is composed largely of the magnesium rich mineral talc. It is produced by dynamothermal metamorphism and metasomatism, which occur in the zo ...
); other woods (e.g.,
ash
Ash or ashes are the solid remnants of fires. Specifically, ''ash'' refers to all non-aqueous, non- gaseous residues that remain after something burns. In analytical chemistry, to analyse the mineral and metal content of chemical samples, ash ...
,
oak
An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...
,
redwood
Sequoioideae, popularly known as redwoods, is a subfamily of coniferous trees within the family
Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affini ...
, and
cedar
Cedar may refer to:
Trees and plants
*''Cedrus'', common English name cedar, an Old-World genus of coniferous trees in the plant family Pinaceae
*Cedar (plant), a list of trees and plants known as cedar
Places United States
* Cedar, Arizona
* ...
); metals (e.g.,
brass
Brass is an alloy of copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn), in proportions which can be varied to achieve different mechanical, electrical, and chemical properties. It is a substitutional alloy: atoms of the two constituents may replace each other with ...
or
pewter
Pewter () is a malleable metal alloy consisting of tin (85–99%), antimony (approximately 5–10%), copper (2%), bismuth, and sometimes silver. Copper and antimony (and in antiquity lead) act as hardeners, but lead may be used in lower grades of ...
);
ceramic
A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain ...
clay, or even
frosted glass
Frosted glass is produced by the sandblasting or acid etching of clear sheet glass. This creates a pitted surface on one side of the glass pane and has the effect of rendering the glass translucent by scattering the light which passes through ...
or
crystal
A crystal or crystalline solid is a solid material whose constituents (such as atoms, molecules, or ions) are arranged in a highly ordered microscopic structure, forming a crystal lattice that extends in all directions. In addition, macros ...
. These sets have a more novel look, and the often heavier weight makes them feel more substantial; also, such materials and the resulting products are usually much more expensive than polymer materials.
Modern commercial domino sets are usually made of synthetic materials, such as
ABS or
polystyrene
Polystyrene (PS) is a synthetic polymer made from monomers of the aromatic hydrocarbon styrene. Polystyrene can be solid or foamed. General-purpose polystyrene is clear, hard, and brittle. It is an inexpensive resin per unit weight. It is a ...
plastics, or
Bakelite
Polyoxybenzylmethylenglycolanhydride, better known as Bakelite ( ), is a thermosetting phenol formaldehyde resin, formed from a condensation reaction of phenol with formaldehyde. The first plastic made from synthetic components, it was developed ...
and other
phenolic resin
Phenol formaldehyde resins (PF) or phenolic resins (also infrequently called phenoplasts) are synthetic polymers obtained by the reaction of phenol or substituted phenol with formaldehyde. Used as the basis for Bakelite, PFs were the first commerc ...
s; many sets approximate the look and feel of ivory while others use colored or even translucent plastics to achieve a more contemporary look. Modern sets also commonly use a different color for the dots of each different end value (one-spots might have black pips while two-spots might be green, three red, etc.) to facilitate finding matching ends. Occasionally, one may find a domino set made of card stock like that for
playing card
A playing card is a piece of specially prepared card stock, heavy paper, thin cardboard, plastic-coated paper, cotton-paper blend, or thin plastic that is marked with distinguishing motifs. Often the front (face) and back of each card has a fi ...
s. Such sets are lightweight, compact, and inexpensive, and like cards are more susceptible to minor disturbances such as a sudden breeze. Sometimes, the tiles have a metal pin (called a spinner or pivot) in the middle.
The traditional domino set contains one unique piece for each possible combination of two ends with zero to six spots, and is known as a double-six set because the highest-value piece has six pips on each end (the "double six"). The spots from one to six are generally arranged as they are on six-sided
dice
Dice (singular die or dice) are small, throwable objects with marked sides that can rest in multiple positions. They are used for generating random values, commonly as part of tabletop games, including dice games, board games, role-playing g ...
, but because blank ends having no spots are used, seven faces are possible, allowing 28 unique pieces in a double-six set.
However, this is a relatively small number especially when playing with more than four people, so many domino sets are "extended" by introducing ends with greater numbers of spots, which increases the number of unique combinations of ends and thus of pieces. Each progressively larger set increases the maximum number of pips on an end by three; so the common extended sets are double-nine (55 tiles), double-12 (91 tiles), double-15 (136 tiles), and double-18 (190 tiles), which is the maximum in practice. Larger sets such as double-21 (253 tiles) could theoretically exist, but they seem to be extremely rare if not nonexistent, as that would be far more than is normally necessary for most domino games, even with eight players. As the set becomes larger, identifying the number of pips on each domino becomes more difficult, so some large domino sets use more readable Arabic numerals instead of pips.
History
![COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Bemanning tijdens een spel domino aan boord van een schip TMnr 60008507](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/86/COLLECTIE_TROPENMUSEUM_Bemanning_tijdens_een_spel_domino_aan_boord_van_een_schip_TMnr_60008507.jpg)
In China, early "domino" tiles were functionally identical to
playing cards
A playing card is a piece of specially prepared card stock, heavy paper, thin cardboard, plastic-coated paper, cotton-paper blend, or thin plastic that is marked with distinguishing motifs. Often the front (face) and back of each card has a fi ...
. An identifiable version of
Chinese dominoes
Chinese dominoes are used in several tile-based games, namely, tien gow, pai gow, tiu u and kap tai shap. In Cantonese they are called (), which literally means "bone tiles"; it is also the name of a northern Chinese game, where the rules are qu ...
developed in the 12th or 13th century. The oldest written mention of domino tiles in China comes from the ''Former Events in Wulin'' (i.e., the capital
Hangzhou
Hangzhou ( or , ; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), also romanized as Hangchow, is the capital and most populous city of Zhejiang, China. It is located in the northwestern part of the province, sitting at the head of Hangzhou Bay, whi ...
) written by the
Yuan Dynasty
The Yuan dynasty (), officially the Great Yuan (; xng, , , literally "Great Yuan State"), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after its division. It was established by Kublai, the fifth ...
(1271–1368) author Zhou Mi (1232–1298), who listed ''pupai'' (gambling plaques or tiles), as well as
dice
Dice (singular die or dice) are small, throwable objects with marked sides that can rest in multiple positions. They are used for generating random values, commonly as part of tabletop games, including dice games, board games, role-playing g ...
as items sold by peddlers during the reign of
Emperor Xiaozong of Song
Emperor Xiaozong of Song (27 November 1127 – 28 June 1194), personal name Zhao Shen, courtesy name Yuanyong, was the 11th emperor of the Song dynasty of China and the second emperor of the Southern Song dynasty. He started his reign in 1 ...
(r. 1162–1189).
It isn't entirely clear that ''pupai'' here means domino tiles, but Andrew Lo (2000) argues that it plausibly does, as the same term is used two centuries later by the Ming author
Lu Rong
Lu Rong (; 1436–1494) was a Chinese scholar. He is also known under the courtesy name Wenliang (文量) and the pseudonym Shizhai (式斋).
He earned his ''jinshi
''Jinshi'' () was the highest and final degree in the imperial examin ...
(1436–1494) in a context that clearly describes domino tiles (in regard to a story of a suitor who won a maiden's hand by drawing out four winning ''pupai'' from a set).
The earliest known manual written about dominoes is the ''Manual of the Xuanhe Period'' () written by
Qu You
Qu You (, 1341–1427), courtesy name Zongji (宗吉) and self-nicknamed Cunzhai (存齋, "Reading Studio of Existence"), was a Chinese novelist who lived in the Ming dynasty, and whose works inspired a new genre fantasy works with political ...
(1341–1427),
but some Chinese scholars believe this manual is a forgery from a later time.
In the ''Encyclopedia of a Myriad of Treasures'', Zhang Pu (1602–1641) described the game of laying out dominoes as ''pupai'', although the character for ''pu'' had changed, yet retained a similar pronunciation.
Traditional Chinese domino games include ''
Tien Gow
Tien Gow or Tin Kau () is the name of Chinese gambling games played with either a pair of dice or a set of 32 Chinese dominoes. In these games, Heaven is the top rank of the civil suit, while Nine is the top rank of the military suit. The civil su ...
,
Pai Gow, Che Deng'', and others. The 32-piece Chinese domino set, made to represent each possible face of two thrown dice and thus have no blank faces, differs from the 28-piece domino set found
in the West during the mid 18th century. Chinese dominoes with blank faces were known during the 17th century.
Each domino originally represented one of the 21 results of throwing two six-sided dice (2d6). One half of each domino is set with the pips from one die and the other half contains the pips from the second die. Chinese sets also introduce duplicates of some throws and divide the tiles into two
suits: military and civil. Chinese dominoes are also longer than typical European ones.
![Friedrich Sturm - Domino Players](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/Friedrich_Sturm_-_Domino_Players.jpg)
The early 18th century saw the game of domino surfacing in
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
, before rapidly spreading to
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
, southern
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
and
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
.
The game became a fad in France in the mid-18th century. The name ''domino'' does not appear before that time, being first recorded in 1771, in the ''
Dictionnaire de Trévoux
The ''Dictionnaire de Trévoux'', as the ''Dictionnaire universel françois et latin'' was unofficially and then officially nicknamed because of its original publication in the town of Trévoux (near Lyon, France), appeared in several editions fr ...
''.
There are two earlier recorded meanings for the French word ''domino'', one referring to the
masquerades of the period, derived from the term for the hooded garment of a priest, the other referred to crude and brightly colored woodcuts on paper formerly popular among French peasants. The way by which this word became the name of the game of domino remains unclear.
From France, the game was introduced to
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
by the late 1700s, purportedly brought in by French prisoners-of-war.
[''The History of Dominoes'']
at worlddomino.com. Retrieved 30 December 2020. It appears in American literature by the 1860s and variants soon spring up. In 1889, it was described as having spread worldwide, "but nowhere is it more popular than in the cafés of France and Belgium. From the outset, the European game was different from the Chinese one. European domino sets contain neither the military-civilian suit distinctions of Chinese dominoes nor the duplicates that went with them. Moreover, according to
Michael Dummett
Sir Michael Anthony Eardley Dummett (27 June 1925 – 27 December 2011) was an English academic described as "among the most significant British philosophers of the last century and a leading campaigner for racial tolerance and equality." He wa ...
, in the Chinese games it is only the identity of the tile that matters; there is no concept of matching. Instead, the basic set of 28 unique tiles contains seven additional pieces, six of them representing the values that result from throwing a single die with the other half of the tile left blank, and the seventh domino representing the blank-blank (0–0) combination. Subsequently 45-piece (
double eight
The following is a glossary of terms used in dominoes. Besides the terms listed here, there are numerous regional or local slang terms. Terms in this glossary should not be game-specific, i.e. specific to one particular version of dominoes, but ap ...
) sets appeared in
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
and, in recent times, 55-piece (
double nine
Dominoes is a family of tile-based games played with gaming pieces, commonly known as dominoes. Each domino is a rectangular tile, usually with a line dividing its face into two square ''ends''. Each end is marked with a number of spots (also ca ...
) and 91-piece (
double twelve
The following is a glossary of terms used in dominoes. Besides the terms listed here, there are numerous regional or local slang terms. Terms in this glossary should not be game-specific, i.e. specific to one particular version of dominoes, but ap ...
) sets have been produced.
The earliest game rules in Europe describe a simple
block game
The following is a partial list of games played with domino tiles or similar equipment. The most typical domino games are ''layout games'', i.e. games in which the players add matching tiles from their hand to a layout or tableau in the middle of ...
for two or four players. Later French rules add the variant of ''Domino à la Pêche'' ("Fishing Domino"), an early
draw game
The following is a partial list of games played with domino tiles or similar equipment. The most typical domino games are ''layout games'', i.e. games in which the players add matching tiles from their hand to a layout or tableau in the middle of ...
as well as a three-hand game with a
pool
Pool may refer to:
Water pool
* Swimming pool, usually an artificial structure containing a large body of water intended for swimming
* Reflecting pool, a shallow pool designed to reflect a structure and its surroundings
* Tide pool, a rocky pool ...
. The first scoring game to be recorded was Fives, All Fives, or Cribbage Dominoes which appeared in 1863 and borrowed the features of scoring for combinations as well as the cribbage board from the card game of
Cribbage
Cribbage, or crib, is a card game, traditionally for two players, that involves playing and grouping cards in combinations which gain points. It can be adapted for three or four players.
Cribbage has several distinctive features: the cribbag ...
. In 1864, ''The American Hoyle'' describes three new variants:
Muggins
Muggins, sometimes also called All Fives, is a domino game played with any of the commonly available sets. Although suitable for up to four players, Muggins is described by John McLeod as "a good, quick two player game". , simply Fives with the addition of another Cribbage feature, the 'muggins rule';
Bergen
Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipality in Vestland county on the west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway. The municipality covers and is on the peninsula of ...
; and Rounce; alongside the
Block Game
The following is a partial list of games played with domino tiles or similar equipment. The most typical domino games are ''layout games'', i.e. games in which the players add matching tiles from their hand to a layout or tableau in the middle of ...
and
Draw Game
The following is a partial list of games played with domino tiles or similar equipment. The most typical domino games are ''layout games'', i.e. games in which the players add matching tiles from their hand to a layout or tableau in the middle of ...
. All are still played today alongside games that have sprung up in the last 60 years such as
Five Up
Muggins, sometimes also called All Fives, is a domino game played with any of the commonly available sets. Although suitable for up to four players, Muggins is described by John McLeod as "a good, quick two player game". ,
Mexican Train
Mexican Train is a game played with dominoes. The object of the game is for a player to play all the tiles from his or her hand onto one or more chains, or trains, emanating from a central hub or "station". The game's most popular name comes from ...
, and
Chicken Foot, the last two taking advantage of the larger domino sets available.
[''Domino Games'']
at pagat.com Pagat.com is a website containing rules to hundreds of card games from all over the world. Maintained by John McLeod, it contains information for traditional, commercial, and newly invented card games from all over the world. It has been described ...
. Retrieved 30 December 2020.
The game is still played internationally, recognized as an "ingrained cultural activity within the
Caribbean
The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...
" but also popular with the
Windrush generation
British African-Caribbean people are an ethnic group in the United Kingdom. They are British citizens whose ancestry originates from the Caribbean or they are nationals of the Caribbean who reside in the UK. There are some self-identified Afro-C ...
(who have Caribbean heritage) in the UK.
Tiles and suits
Dominoes (also known as bones, cards, men, pieces or tiles), are normally twice as long as they are wide, which makes it easier to re-stack pieces after use. A domino usually features a line in the middle to divide it visually into two squares, called ends. The value of either side is the number of spots or pips. In the most common variant (double-six), the values range from six pips down to none or blank.
[. Republished 1994 by Wordsworth Editions.] The sum of the two values, i.e. the total number of pips, may be referred to as the rank or weight of a tile; a tile may be described as "heavier" than a "lighter" one that has fewer (or no) pips.
Tiles are generally named after their two values. For instance, the following are descriptions of the tile bearing the values two and five:
* Deuce-five
* Five-deuce
* 2-5
* 5-2
A tile that has the same pips-value on each end is called a double or doublet, and is typically referred to as double-zero , double-one , and so on.
Conversely, a tile bearing different values is called a single.
Every tile which features a given number is a member of the suit of that number. A single tile is a member of two suits: for example, belongs both to the suit of threes and the suit of blanks, or 0 suit.
In some versions the doubles can be treated as an additional suit of doubles. In these versions, the belongs both to the suit of sixes and the suit of doubles. However, the dominant approach is that each double belongs to only one suit.
The most common domino sets commercially available are double six (with 28 tiles) and double nine (with 55 tiles). Larger sets exist and are popular for games involving several players or for players looking for long domino games.
The number of tiles in a double-n set obeys the following formula:
:
This formula can be simplified a little bit when
is made equal to the ''total number of doubles in the domino set'':
The total number of pips in a double-n set is found by:
i.e. the number of tiles multiplied by the maximum pip-count (n)
e.g. a 6-6 set has (7 x 8) / 2 = 56/2 = 28 tiles, the average number of pips per tile is 6 (range is from 0 to 12), giving a total pip count of 6 x 28 = 168
Rules
The most popular type of play are layout games, which fall into two main categories, blocking games and scoring games.
* Most domino games are blocking games, where the objective is to empty one's hand while blocking the opponent's. In the end, a score may be determined by counting the pips in the losing players' hands.
* In scoring games, the scoring is different and happens mostly during game play, making it the principal objective.
* A popular version played predominantly in Singapore, referenced as Hector's Rules, allows for playing double tiles on opponents' hands and awards a bonus play of an additional tile immediately after playing a double tile.
* If an opponent lays all their tiles on their turn, the game is a tie.
Blocking game
The most basic domino variant is for two players and requires a double-six set. The 28 tiles are shuffled face down and form the ''stock'' or ''boneyard''. Each player draws seven tiles from the stock. Once the players begin drawing tiles, they are typically placed on-edge in front of the players, so players can see their own tiles, but not the value of their opponents' tiles. Players can thus see how many tiles remain in their opponents' hands at all times.
One player begins by downing (playing the first tile) one of their tiles. This tile starts the line of play, in which values of adjacent pairs of tile ends must match. The players alternately extend the line of play with one tile at one of its two ends; if a player is unable to place a valid tile, they must continue drawing tiles from the stock until they are able to place a tile. The game ends when one player wins by playing their last tile, or when the game is blocked because neither player can play. If that occurs, whoever caused the block receives all of the remaining player points not counting their own.
Scoring game
Players accrue points during game play for certain configurations, moves, or emptying one's hand. Most scoring games use variations of the draw game. If a player does not call "domino" before the tile is laid on the table, and another player says domino after the tile is laid, the first player must pick up an extra domino.
Draw game
In a draw game (blocking or scoring), players are additionally allowed to draw as many tiles as desired from the stock before playing a tile, and they are not allowed to pass before the stock is (nearly) empty.
The score of a game is the number of pips in the losing player's hand plus the number of pips in the stock. Most rules prescribe that two tiles need to remain in the stock.
The draw game is often referred to as simply "dominoes".
Adaptations of both games can accommodate more than two players, who may play individually or in teams.
Line of play
The line of play is the configuration of played tiles on the table. It starts with a single tile and typically grows in two opposite directions when players add matching tiles. In practice, players often play tiles at right angles when the line of play gets too close to the edge of the table.
The rules for the line of play often differ from one variant to another. In many rules, the doubles serve as spinners, i.e., they can be played on all four sides, causing the line of play to branch. Sometimes, the first tile is required to be a double, which serves as the only spinner.
In some games such as
Chicken Foot, all sides of a spinner must be occupied before anybody is allowed to play elsewhere.
Matador
A bullfighter (or matador) is a performer in the activity of bullfighting. ''Torero'' () or ''toureiro'' (), both from Latin ''taurarius'', are the Spanish and Portuguese words for bullfighter and describe all the performers in the activit ...
has unusual rules for matching.
Bendomino
''Bendomino'' is a tabletop strategy game similar to dominoes, created by Thierry Denoual and published by Blue Orange Games in 2007. It is a set of double-6 dominoes with a 120-degree curve. The main difference from dominoes is the curved shap ...
uses curved tiles, so one side of the line of play (or both) may be blocked for geometrical reasons.
In
Mexican Train
Mexican Train is a game played with dominoes. The object of the game is for a player to play all the tiles from his or her hand onto one or more chains, or trains, emanating from a central hub or "station". The game's most popular name comes from ...
and other train games, the game starts with a spinner from which various trains branch off. Most trains are owned by a player and in most situations players are allowed to extend only their own train.
Scoring
In blocking games, scoring happens at the end of the game. After a player has emptied their hand, thereby winning the game for the team, the score consists of the total pip count of the losing team's hands. In some rules, the pip count of the remaining stock is added. If a game is blocked because no player can move, the winner is often determined by adding the pips in players' hands.
In scoring games, each individual can potentially add to the score. For example, in Bergen, players score two points whenever they cause a configuration in which both open ends have the same value and three points if additionally one open end is formed by a double. In Muggins, players score by ensuring the total pip count of the open ends is a multiple of a certain number. In variants of Muggins, the line of play may branch due to spinners. In the common U.S. variant known as Fives players score by making the open ends a multiple of five.
In British public houses and social clubs, a scoring version of "5s-and-3s" is used. The game is normally played in pairs (two against two) and is played as a series of "ends". In each "end", the objective is for players to attach a domino from their hand to one end of those already played so that the sum of the end tiles is divisible by five or three. One point is scored for each time five or three can be divided into the sum of the two tiles, i.e. four at one end and five at the other makes nine, which is divisible by three three times, resulting in three points. Double five at one end and five at the other makes 15, which is divisible by three five times (five points) and divisible by five three times (three points) for a total of eight points.
An "end" stops when one of the players is out, i.e., has played all of their tiles. In the event no player is able to empty their hand, then the player with the lowest domino left in hand is deemed to be out and scores one point. A game consists of any number of ends with points scored in the ends accumulating towards a total. The game ends when one of the pair's total score exceeds a set number of points. A running total score is often kept on a
cribbage
Cribbage, or crib, is a card game, traditionally for two players, that involves playing and grouping cards in combinations which gain points. It can be adapted for three or four players.
Cribbage has several distinctive features: the cribbag ...
board. 5s-and-3s is played in a number of competitive leagues in the British Isles.
Card games using domino sets
Apart from the usual blocking and scoring games, also domino games of a very different character are played, such as solitaire or trick-taking games. Most of these are adaptations of
card game
A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific.
Countless card games exist, including families of related games (such as poker). A small number of card ...
s and were once popular in certain areas to circumvent religious proscriptions against
playing card
A playing card is a piece of specially prepared card stock, heavy paper, thin cardboard, plastic-coated paper, cotton-paper blend, or thin plastic that is marked with distinguishing motifs. Often the front (face) and back of each card has a fi ...
s.
A very simple example is a
Concentration
In chemistry, concentration is the abundance of a constituent divided by the total volume of a mixture. Several types of mathematical description can be distinguished: '' mass concentration'', ''molar concentration'', ''number concentration'', an ...
variant played with a double-six set; two tiles are considered to match if their total pip count is 12.
A popular domino game in
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
is
42. The game is similar to the card game
spades
SPAdes (St. Petersburg genome assembler) is a genome assembly algorithm which was designed for single cell and multi-cells bacterial data sets. Therefore, it might not be suitable for large genomes projects.
SPAdes works with Ion Torrent, PacBio ...
. It is played with four players paired into teams. Each player draws seven tiles, and the tiles are played into tricks. Each trick counts as one point, and any domino with a multiple of five dots counts toward the total of the hand. These 35 points of "five count" and seven tricks equals 42 points, hence the name.
Competitive play
![Abkhazia 10 apsar Ag 2011 Domino b](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/Abkhazia_10_apsar_Ag_2011_Domino_b.jpg)
Dominoes is played at a professional level, similar to poker. Numerous organisations and clubs of amateur domino players exist around the world. Some organizations organize international competitions. Examples include the Anglo Caribbean Dominoes League (ACDL) in the UK which includes over 40 clubs including the
Brixton Immortals
The Brixton Immortals Domino Club formed in the 1970s, as a team and wider community social club playing Dominoes in Brixton, London, United Kingdom.
With ''Brixton Blog'' calling it "Brixton's most successful sport team" it is synonymous with ...
.
Dominoes in Unicode
Since April 2008, the character encoding standard
Unicode
Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology Technical standard, standard for the consistent character encoding, encoding, representation, and handling of Character (computing), text expre ...
includes characters that represent the double-six domino tiles. While a complete domino set has only 28 tiles, the Unicode set has "reversed" versions of the 21 tiles with different numbers on each end, a "back" image, and everything duplicated as horizontal and vertical orientations, for a total of 100 glyphs. Few fonts are known to support these glyphs.
Historical domino competitions
*Col. Henry T. Titus vs. Capt. Clark Rice for the naming of
Titusville, Florida
Titusville is a city in eastern Florida and the county seat of Brevard County, Florida, United States. The city's population was 43,761 as of the 2010 United States Census.
Titusville is located along the Indian River (Florida), Indian River, west ...
.
See also
*Domino games
**
Glossary of domino terms
The following is a glossary of terms used in dominoes. Besides the terms listed here, there are numerous regional or local slang terms. Terms in this glossary should not be game-specific, i.e. specific to one particular version of dominoes, but a ...
**
List of domino games
The following is a partial list of games played with domino tiles or similar equipment. The most typical domino games are ''layout games'', i.e. games in which the players add matching tiles from their hand to a layout or tableau in the middle of ...
**
Chinese dominoes
Chinese dominoes are used in several tile-based games, namely, tien gow, pai gow, tiu u and kap tai shap. In Cantonese they are called (), which literally means "bone tiles"; it is also the name of a northern Chinese game, where the rules are qu ...
*Other related articles
**
Domino theory
The domino theory is a geopolitical theory which posits that increases or decreases in democracy in one country tend to spread to neighboring countries in a domino effect. It was prominent in the United States from the 1950s to the 1980s in the ...
**
Domino show
Domino toppling is the activity of standing up dominoes in sequence known as a domino run and then triggering the first one in line to create a chain reaction also called the domino effect. A competition between two or more players to be first to ...
/
Domino toppling
Domino toppling is the activity of standing up dominoes in sequence known as a domino run and then triggering the first one in line to create a chain reaction also called the domino effect. A competition between two or more players to be first to ...
**
Polyomino
A polyomino is a plane geometric figure formed by joining one or more equal squares edge to edge. It is a polyform whose cells are squares. It may be regarded as a finite subset of the regular square tiling.
Polyominoes have been used in pop ...
es
**
Pub games
A pub game is one which is traditionally played inside or outside a pub or bar. Most pub games date back many years and are rooted in village culture. Many derive from older outdoor sports.
Pub games can be loosely grouped into throwing games, d ...
**
Tile-based game
A tile-based game is a game that uses tiles as one of the fundamental elements of play. Traditional tile-based games use small tiles as playing pieces for gambling or entertainment games. Some board games use tiles to create their board, givin ...
**
List of world championships in mind sports
This article gives a list of world championships in mind sports which usually represent the most prestigious competition for a specific board game, card game or mind sport. World championships can only be held for most games or mind sports with th ...
Notes
References
Sources
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External links
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{{Tabletop games by type
Chinese inventions
Pub games
Gaming devices
Gambling games