How many chips in dominoes, or let's rattle the bones
Surely, many people have known the game of dominoes since childhood. Most likely, they have seen more than once how grandparents at the tables at the entrances “cut” the whole day into this game. Why is she so interesting? Where did she come from? How many chips are in dominoes? Let's try to answer all these questions today.
History of dominoes
Domino is considered one of the varieties of the game of dice. It is believed that the ancestor of all gaming dice is India. In those days, the knuckles for the game were cut from precious woods. Only the richest stratum of society, the nobility, could afford to play such a game.
After some time, dominoes and dice became a public game. How many chips in dominoes were in those days - no one knows. Various sources describe the rules of the game and the composition of dominoes in different ways. In China, for example, there were more than fifty different bones, including multi-colored variants. Bones were not just a collection of dots, as they are today. Chinese craftsmen made incredibly beautiful bones depicting animals, hieroglyphs, etc. By the way, it is from the Chinese dominoes that the popular Mahjong game today originated.
In the 18th century, the bones "move" to Italy, where their appearance and number undergo some changes. Chips become a little shorter, their number also decreases. The Italians deprive the bones of duplicates, drawings and leave seven chips and additional bones "empty".
Domino set
So, let's figure out how modern domino bones look now, how many chips in dominoes should be. Domino bones are slightly elongated plates with dots on them. Each plate has its own number of these points. In total, the standard set contains 28 plates. As a rule, modern dominoes are made of plastic. More expensive options are made from wood, precious metals or animal bones.
If we talk about the Chinese domino, which is the ancestor of the Western version of the game, then it is slightly different from what we are used to. How many dominoes are there in China? The Chinese play domino, which consists of 32 bones. Moreover, they do not have “empty” chips. Instead, several additional duplicates are used.
Rules of the game
The rules of the game are quite simple. Participation is from two to four people. Depending on the number of players, a different number of dice is taken. How many chips are taken in dominoes if two people play? - seven. How many chips if four or three people are playing? - five. The remaining bones remain "in the market", from where the players, if necessary, can take them one at a time.
So, each of the players scored the required number of bones. The player with the big double goes first. Double - domino with the same number of dots 6-6, 5-5, etc. If no one has doubles at all, then the player who has the tile with the highest number of points has the first move.
Next, the players lay out the chips in turn, making a chain. Each next bone must have an edge with the same number of points as the previous one. If there are no bones at the ends of the snake with the number of points that you have, you should go “to the market”.
Many beginners think that they need to place as many dominoes as there are total dominoes. No. The point of playing and winning is to finish posting your chips as quickly as possible. As soon as one player has placed the last dice, the game ends.
Scoring
After the winner has placed his last chip, the players begin to count the points. As a rule, before the start of the game, everyone agrees to what specific number in the total score the game will last. Usually the game lasts up to one hundred or two hundred points, but other options are possible. Depending on the agreed number, the duration of the game also changes.
There are times when all players do not have chips to close the ones on the table. This ending of the game is called "fish". Here, the winner will be the player who placed chips last or the one who has fewer points left in his hand.
Varieties of the game
So, we already know where this game came from, how to play it, how many pieces are in dominoes and what they look like. But there are several varieties of dominoes, the rules of which change.
The most popular options in Russia are: "Goat", "Donkey", "Sea Goat", "Telephone". These options differ from each other in the number of players allowed to the field, in different ways of scoring. For example, in "Goat" it's every man for himself, and "Sea Goat" involves playing in pairs.
In England, a domino game called "Muggins" is more popular. Here the game begins not with the usual “double”, but with any bone. The score is strictly up to two hundred points.
