Dominoes

Dominoes, game played by two or more persons, with 28 small, flat, rectangular blocks made of ivory, bone, plastic, or wood. The blocks are called dominoes. Although the game originated in China in ancient times, it was not introduced in Europe until the middle of the 18th century. The first European pieces had ivory faces backed by ebony; they are thought to have been named because of their resemblance to the hooded cloak called a domino. Each domino, also called a piece or a bone, is divided in half by a line or ridge, with a combination of spots, or pips, at each end. In the more commonly used set of dominoes, one piece is blank, and the remainder are numbered downward from double six; that is, 6-6, 6-5, 6-4, 6-3, 6-2, 6-1, 6-0, 5-5, 5-4, 5-3, 5-2, 5-1, 5-0, and so on through all the other numbers down to 0-0. Before the game starts, the 28 pieces are turned face downward and intermixed, and each player draws a domino. The player who draws the highest domino is the first to play. Then, according to the variation of the game being played, either all or some of the dominoes are selected alternately, one piece at a time, by the players. Each player sets the dominoes on edge so that they cannot be seen by opponents. The dominoes not drawn make up the reserve, called the stock or boneyard.

The first player poses (places) one piece faceup on the table. Against it at either end of the piece the second player must place a match; that is, one end of the piece played must have the same number of pips as one end of the piece already laid down. The next player in turn must play a domino with an end that matches one of the two ends of the dominoes on the table. Doubles, or dominoes with the same number of pips at both ends, are posed à cheval (crosswise) in the line of dominoes, rather than lengthwise. In certain variations of the game, the play of a double provides additional branches for matching. A player who has no piece to match either end passes, and the next player takes a turn. In a draw game (a game in which not all the dominoes are dealt) a player may draw on the stock up to, but never including, the last two dominoes. The player may thus nearly exhaust the stock even when the player has a match; this practice is occasionally good strategy, especially when the opponent is blocked. The game proceeds until one of the players wins by setting out the last of his or her dominoes, or until no player can match at either end. In the latter case, the winner is the player with the fewest pips on the remaining dominoes, or in the case of an equal number of pips, the fewest dominoes.