Dominoes, cousins of playing cards, are one of the oldest tools for game play. From professional domino game competition to simply setting up a series of them and knocking them over, the little rectangular blocks offer a huge variety of games and tests of skill and patience.
A domino is a flat, thumbsized rectangular block of wood or plastic with a line dividing the face into two square ends, each bearing an arrangement of dots, called pips, from one to six; 28 such pieces form a complete set. The backs of the pieces are blank or identically patterned. When a piece is flipped over, the pips are revealed and, except for some types of partnerships, the total number of exposed dots determines the winner.
The earliest known domino game dates from about the 1300s. The game was probably invented in China, although the European versions that we recognize today differ from Chinese ones in many respects, including the addition of seven extra dominoes–six representing the results from throwing a single die with the other half of the tile left blank, and one representing the blank-blank (0-0) combination.
There are numerous other games that may be played with dominoes, but the most popular involves scoring points by laying a series of matching ends side by side, or doubles. The first player to score a total of twelve points wins the game. This is usually accomplished by laying the two outermost dominoes, which must touch each other (one’s touching one’s, two’s touching two’s, etc.) and then adding the total of all of the remaining dominoes to the score.
A variety of other games of a more abstract character are also played with dominoes, but most of these are adaptations of card-playing games and were once popular in areas where religious prohibitions against the use of cards had been enacted. Some of these games are played only by two players, but others are adapted for more than two and even for solo use.
The most common game of domino involves a team of four or more people. The dominoes are shuffled and then drawn to determine the team that will begin play. The team member who draws the highest double or, if no doubles are drawn, the highest domino plays first. The remaining dominoes, which are referred to as the boneyard, are set aside until a player is unable to make a move from his hand and then played in order. A player who cannot continue to make moves must draw additional dominoes from the boneyard. He then begins play with these new dominoes.