Dominoes – Play Online for Free

The oldest traces of dominoes lead to China, where scholars date the first written source to the 13th century. The traditional Chinese set has 32 tiles, each one standing for a throw of two dice. Whether the European game came from there or arose on its own is still an open question. In Europe dominoes is documented from about 1760, first in France and soon after in Germany, where it was at first seen as a children's game. Even the origin of the name is uncertain; one theory links it to the black hooded cloak worn at masquerades, which is also called a domino.

In English the tiles are still nicknamed "bones," and the leftover tiles you draw from are the boneyard. At Domino Day 2009 in the Netherlands, 4,491,863 dominoes toppled in a row, a world record that Guinness still lists today, and in Texas a trick-taking domino game called 42 was named the official state domino game in 2011. Our game is the classic draw version, and here you face one to three computer players online, free and whenever you feel like it.

Pips to Pips: Rules, Scoring and Tricks for Dominoes

The game uses the classic double-six set of 28 tiles: every pairing of the numbers 0 to 6 appears exactly once, from 0-0 to 6-6. Seven of them are doubles, with the same number on both halves. With two or three players everyone gets seven tiles, with four players six, and the remaining tiles go face down into the boneyard. The counter next to the clock shows how many are still waiting there.

• The first tile: in the first hand of a game, whoever holds the highest double starts the line with it. If nobody has a double, the tile with the most pips opens. Each hand after that is started by the next player clockwise with a tile of their choice.
• Matching: the line of play has two open ends. You attach a tile so that its matching half touches the end with the same number of pips, and its other half becomes the new end. Doubles are placed crosswise, and nothing is played off their sides. If you have a tile that fits, you must play it.
• Drawing: if none of your tiles fits, you draw from the boneyard until one does and play it. The last two tiles in the boneyard always stay there; once only they are left, you have to pass.
• Domino!: whoever plays their last tile ends the hand at once and wins it.
• Blocked game: if nobody can play and nobody can draw, the hand is blocked. The player with the fewest pips in hand then wins; if two are tied for fewest, nobody scores that hand.
• Scoring: the winner of a hand earns the pips left in all the other hands, minus their own. Nobody loses points. The first player to reach 61 points or more at the end of a hand wins the game.

A click on a tile that fits plays it. If it fits both ends in different ways, pale outlines show where it could go, and a click on one of them decides. You can also drag a tile straight to an end. Tiles that do not fit are dimmed, and your hand is sorted by number. The number buttons at the top choose how many players join the game, you included. Here is how to go domino more often:

• Heavy tiles first: if you lose a hand, your remaining pips go to the winner, and a 6-6 alone hands over twelve. When you have a choice, get the tiles with many pips down early.
• Keep many numbers in hand: a hand of tiles with only two or three different numbers soon has nothing that fits, and you end up drawing. Play so that you keep as many numbers as possible.
• Count the tiles: each number appears on exactly seven tiles. If six tiles with a four are already on the table and you hold the seventh, nobody but you can play on a four.
• Read your opponents: nobody draws by choice here. When an opponent has to draw, they are missing the numbers on both ends, and those are exactly the numbers you should offer them again whenever you can.
• Block when it pays: if both ends show a number whose seven tiles have all been played, the game is stuck and the lightest hand wins. With few pips in your hand, a block is good news.
• Do not save doubles forever: a double fits only one number. If that number stops turning up, the double stays with you to the end.

Off the Line: Five Games with Tiles, Cards and Dice

If a few hands have left you wanting something similar, take a look here:

• Rummikub: numbered tiles again, this time in four colors. You form runs and groups and may even rework what is already on the table.
• Mahjong: here tiles disappear instead of being joined up. Two identical ones that lie free leave the layout together.
• Backgammon: the pips are on the dice this time. Two of them decide how far your fifteen checkers travel, and smart moves do the rest.
• Ludo: one die, four pieces and a lap around the board, with the chance to send your rivals back to the start.
• Canasta: matching sets with cards instead of tiles, played in two teams with two decks and four jokers.