Domino is a family of tile-based games. The tiles are rectangular with square ends and a spot or number marked on one end. The objective of dominoes is to stack up the tiles in a row until they reach their designated goal. The winner is the person with the most points at the end of the row. To play dominoes, players move their dominoes to a center square to begin. They can also move from one corner to another corner by matching up two adjacent tiles of the same color.
There are many variations of dominoes. In one variation, players place each tile so that two opposite ends are adjacent. Doubles are placed across one end of the chain, while tiles played to a double must be placed perpendicular to it, touching in the middle. Dominoes also develop a chain shape randomly, depending on the player’s preference and playing surface. Some chains form a snake-line or other shape, which depends on the playing surface.
The game’s name is derived from the word domino, which means long cloak or mask worn by priests. The black underside of the pieces also reminds players of the cape of the priest. Several European-style dominoes are referred to as “dominos,” and have various slang terms. They are commonly used in discussions of domino strategy. In addition to their meaning, domino slang terms refer to specific tiles and situations.
In the United States, dominoes are played by matching up two identical tiles of the same value. Each tile in a set has one or two spots, and their values are designated by pips. The total number of pips on each tile is called the tile’s rank. The tile with more pips is said to be the heavier tile. This is also the case for games where two players try to win. There are many variations of dominoes.
In the West, dominoes were first recorded in the mid-18th century in France and Italy. Italian missionaries brought the game to Europe, but the game did not evolve in this region. Domino’s popularity spread from the West to the East. The game is most commonly used in positional games in which players place dominos edge-to-edge against each other. During a game, adjacent faces of the dominos must be identical, or they must total a specific number of points.
In skillful dominoes, players try to get to the set number of points, usually 61. Using a double-six set, this game is called “double six draw.” The set contains double-six dominoes with 120-degree bent tiles. Players may also connect two ends of the set to block the opponent’s play. In double-six draw, the player who does not call domino before laying a tile is awarded an extra tile.
A domino set contains dominoes in various varieties. Each domino originally represents one of 21 outcomes from the throw of two six-sided dice. Chinese sets add duplicates of some throws. Consequently, dominoes are divided into two classes, double six and double eight. It is important to remember that each type of domino set has a distinct value. There are many variations of the game. And dominoes are one of the oldest and most popular forms of board games.