Dominoes (or dominos) generally refers to the collective gaming pieces making up a domino set (sometimes called a deck or pack) or to the subcategory of tile games played with domino pieces. In the area of mathematical tilings and polyominoes, the word domino often refers to any rectangle formed from joining two congruent squares edge to edge. The traditional Sino-European domino set consists of 28 dominoes, colloquially nicknamed bones, cards, tiles, tickets, stones, or spinners. Each domino is a rectangular tile with a line dividing its face into two square ends. Each end is marked with a number of spots (also called pips, nips or dobs) or is blank. The backs of the dominoes in a set are indistinguishable, either blank or having some common design. A domino set is a generic gaming device, similar to playing cards or dice, in that a variety of games can be played with a set. The earliest mention of dominoes is from Song Dynasty China, found in the text Former Events in Wulin.[1] Dominoes first appeared in Italy during the 18th century, and although it is unknown how Chinese dominoes developed into the modern game, it is speculated that Italian missionaries in China may have brought the game to Europe. The oldest confirmed written mention of dominoes in China comes from the Former Events in Wulin (i.e. the capital Hangzhou) written by the Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368) author Zhou Mi (1232–1298), who listed pupai (gambling plaques or dominoes) as well as dice as items sold by peddlers during the reign of Emperor Xiaozong of Song (r. 1162–1189).[1] Andrew Lo asserts that Zhou Mi meant dominoes when referring to pupai, since the Ming author Lu Rong (1436–1494) explicitly defined pupai as dominoes (in regards to a story of a suitor who won a maidens hand by drawing out four winning pupai from a set).[1] The earliest known manual written about dominoes is the 《宣和牌譜》(Manual of the Xuanhe Period) written by Qu You (1341–1437).[1] But some Chinese scholars consider this manual was forged by later people.[4] 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 the same pronunciation.[1] Traditional Chinese domino games include Tien Gow, Pai Gow, Che Deng, and others. The thirty-two-piece Chinese domino set, made to represent each possible face of two thrown dice and thus have no blank faces, differs from the twenty-eight-piece domino set found in the West during the mid 18th century.[5] Many different domino sets have been used for centuries in various parts of the world to play a variety of domino games. Each domino originally represented one of the 21 results of throwing two 6-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 dominoes into two classes: military and civil. Chinese dominoes are also longer than typical European dominoes. The early 18th century witnessed dominoes making their way to Europe, making their first appearance in Italy. The game changed somewhat in the translation from Chinese to the European culture. European domino sets contain neither class distinctions nor the duplicates that went with them. Instead, European sets contain seven additional dominoes, with six of these 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. Ivory Dominoes were routinely used in 19th century rural England in the settling of disputes over traditional grazing boundaries, and were commonly referred to as bonesticks (see Hartley, Land Law in West Lancashire in the mid- 19th Century, Farm Gazette, March 1984). Tiles and suits[edit] Complete double-six set Domino tiles, also known as bones, are twice as long as they are wide and usually have a line in the middle dividing them into two squares. The value of either side is the number of spots or pips. In the most common variant (Double Six) the values range from blank or 0 (no pips) to 6.[6] 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, and a tile with more pips may be called heavier than a lighter tile with fewer pips. Tiles are generally named after their two values; e.g. 2–5 or 5–2 are alternative ways of describing the tile with the values 2 and 5. Tiles that have the same value on both ends are called doubles, and are typically referred to as double-zero, double-one etc.[6] Tiles with two different values are called singles.[7] Every tile belongs to the two suits of its two values, e.g. 0–3 belongs both to the blank suit (or 0 suit) and to the 3 suit. Naturally the doubles form an exception in that each double belongs to only one suit.[6] In 42, the doubles are treated as an additional suit of doubles, so that, e.g., the double-six 6–6 belongs both to the 6 suit and the suit of doubles. 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. Rules[edit] See also: List of domino games 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, i.e. the objective is to empty ones hand while blocking the opponents. 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.[7] Blocking game[edit] 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; the remainder are not used. Once the players begin drawing tiles, they are typically placed on-edge before the players, so that each player can see his own tiles, but none can see the value of other players tiles. Every player can thus see how many tiles remain in the other players hands at all times during gameplay. One player begins by downing (playing the first tile) one of their tiles. This tile starts the line of play, a series of tiles in which adjacent tiles touch with matching, i.e. equal, values. The players alternately extend the line of play with one tile at one of its two ends. 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 gets all of the remaining player points not counting their own.[6] Scoring game[edit] Players accrue points during game play for certain configurations, moves, or emptying ones 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. In Mexican train the double zero domino is scored as 7 points.
Posted on: Thu, 06 Mar 2014 07:22:45 +0000