A domino is a small, flat, rectangular block used in various games. Often made of wood or plastic, they are known by many names, including men, bones, tiles, cards, and stones.
Dominos are a popular game that can be played in many cultures, from the United States to China. They can be used to play a wide range of traditional and non-traditional games, such as blocking, scoring, trick-taking, and solitaire.
The basic domino game is the block-and-draw game for two to four players, where the player with the heaviest piece wins the game, and each player draws at random from a stock of seven pieces. When all of the dominoes have been drawn, each player adds the remaining “sleeping” pieces to their set, then passes their turn to the next person.
Several variations of this game are also played, each with its own rules and variants. The most common are the Block game and the Draw game. The Block game is played with the standard 28-tile domino set, with each player placing one tile onto the table and then moving it so that it touches one end of a chain of dominoes, which gradually increases in length until all of the pieces have been placed.
In the Block game, the player who played the heaviest domino first takes the lead in each round, and the highest double of each hand is called. The next heaviest double is called after the first, until the highest double in each player’s hand is played.
Other variants include the drawing game, in which a player must pick a sleeping domino and place it before his turn to move. The drawing game is more popular in many parts of the world, and it involves a similar amount of dominoes as the Block game.
There are also many different types of dominos and sets of tiles, which can be found throughout the world. These range from very simple sets with only six tiles, to very elaborate sets with over 200 different tiles and variants.
Some people have a particular affinity for the game, and they often create their own unique sets of dominoes. These are known as collector’s sets and are often sold in specialized shops.
They can range in price from less than $10 to over $100. Some are crafted from precious metals, such as silver or gold. Others are made of more durable materials, such as melamine or polyurethane.
The earliest reference to dominoes is in Song dynasty China, where they were referred to as zhuang, or “black,” and jiang, or “white.” In French, the word became domino. Its etymology has a somewhat obscure background, but it may be linked to a long hooded cape worn by a priest at a masquerade.
Hevesh’s obsession with dominoes started when she was 9 years old and her family owned a domino set. She loved putting the dominoes in a straight or curved line and flicking them, then watching them fall one after another.