Domino is a type of game where players take turns placing tiles to build a line or pattern. Each tile has a number of spots or dots, usually from one to six, on its side. The other side of the tile is blank or identically patterned. There are many ways to play domino, but most games share the same basic rules: players can only place tiles on their lines that match their own, and once a player has placed all of his or her pieces, the turn passes to the next player in the line.
Domino has become a cultural icon, with players from all walks of life engaging in this timeless activity. The simple act of arranging and stacking a few squares of tiles can foster social interaction, challenge the mind, encourage cooperation, and create a sense of accomplishment when an intricate arrangement is finally complete. It is not surprising that such an unassuming game would have taken on such significance in our global society.
A game of domino is played on a flat surface, such as a table or a floor. The tiles are set up so that the ends of each row of tiles are touching. The pieces may be arranged in straight or curved lines, grids that form pictures when they fall, stacked walls, or 3D structures such as towers and pyramids. Some people even use their dominoes to make works of art.
The most common domino sets have double-nine tiles (55 pieces), double-12 (91 pieces), and double-18 (190 pieces). There are also “extended” sets, which add more tiles to the maximum total of pips on an end.
After the dominoes are shuffled, each player draws one to determine which piece will be the first to be played. Some games allow the player with the highest double to begin, while others assign the first play to the heaviest tile in the hand. If a tie exists, the tiles are drawn again until there is a clear winner.
A domino that can be played on three or more sides is called a spinner. When a player plays a spinner, it makes the other two ends of the line of play that it joins equal in value. In addition, some games count the number of pips left in losers’ hands at the end of a hand or game and add that amount to the winner’s score.
Hevesh, a professional domino artist who has created incredible installations for movies and TV shows and for events such as an album launch for pop singer Katy Perry, is renowned for her skill and speed at creating massive arrangements of the tiles. But her biggest setups aren’t easy to get right; they can take several nail-biting minutes to fall, and each individual domino has to be perfectly positioned in order to work. Hevesh makes test versions of each section of her installations, filming them in slow motion so she can see exactly what’s going wrong and correct it.