Domino

Setup

The full double-six set: 28 tiles, each showing two ends of 0 to 6 pips. Two or four players.

At TWO players each is dealt seven tiles and the remaining fourteen form the boneyard, which you draw from. At FOUR players the whole set is dealt — seven each, and there is no boneyard at all, so you knock and pass when you cannot play. That is the standard partnership deal.

The player holding the highest double opens the first round; if nobody holds a double, the highest-value tile opens. In later rounds the turn to start passes on, so one lucky deal cannot own the whole match.

How to play

The opening tile is laid in the middle. After that, on your turn you add one tile to either open end of the chain, matching pips to pips — a tile with a 4 on it can be laid against an end showing 4, and the other half of your tile becomes the new open end.

A double is laid crosswise to the chain. The chain turns when it reaches the edge of the table and carries on the other way; the bend is part of the object, not a line break.

At two players, if you cannot play you must DRAW from the boneyard until you can, or until it is empty. Only then may you pass. You may not draw while you are holding a tile that can be played.

At four players there is nothing to draw from, so a player who cannot go simply knocks and passes.

Controls

Your tiles stand in a rail along the bottom of the screen. A tile you can legally play stands proud of the groove; one you cannot sits down inside it. That is the whole highlight — position rather than colour, so it reads the same to every player.

Tap a tile to pick it up: it lifts clear of the rail and takes a gold ring. Then tap Play Left or Play Right to choose which end of the chain it joins. When only one end will accept it, only that button is offered.

The opening tile of a round uses a single Play First Tile button instead, because an empty table has no left end and no right end yet.

Draw takes a tile from the boneyard, and is offered only while the boneyard still has tiles and you have nothing to play. Once it is empty, Draw is replaced by Pass — the knock — which is then the only move a stuck player can make.

The chain turns its own corners as it reaches the edge of the table, and a double always lies across the direction of travel. Neither is something you steer. Where it turns depends on the size of the screen, so a phone and a tablet can fold the same chain differently — the tiles, their order and both open ends are always identical.

Opponents' tiles are shown face down on their own rails, and the count beside each name is always there even when the rail is too narrow to draw them. On a four-player table the two partners face each other, and the score is kept as Us and Them.

Scoring

A round ends when somebody plays their last tile, or when nobody can play at all — a blocked round.

If you played out, your side banks the total pips still held by the other side. Your own tiles count for nothing, because you have none.

If the round was blocked, the side holding the LOWER pip total takes it and banks the other side's pips. If the two totals are exactly level, nobody scores.

Singles or partners, the arithmetic is the same — a partnership is scored as one hand, so your partner's tiles count against you as surely as your own.

On your profile a win pays 25 points, a draw 8 and a loss 3 — the second largest award here, behind chess, because a match to 100 is a long sitting.

Only the MATCH is a result. Winning a round banks pips and deals again; nothing reaches your profile, your history or the leaderboard until somebody reaches the target.

Domino is rated and moves the same ladder as chess, but only in an online match between exactly two people. A four-handed partnership match pays both partners the full win in points and stats, and leaves everyone's rating alone.

Winning

A match is many rounds. The tiles are shuffled and dealt again after each one, and the first side to reach 100 points wins the match. Only the match is recorded — your history and the leaderboard count one game, not one per round.

At four players you choose singles or partners in the lobby before creating the room. In partners, the two players sitting opposite each other play as a side and their scores are banked together.

Walking out of a two-player match, or letting a turn run out, loses the match — and in partners it loses it for your partner too. A four-handed singles match carries on without whoever leaves: their tiles and their score go with them, the leaver is recorded as a loss when the match ends, and a turn left unplayed is played for you so the other three are not kept waiting.

Tips

Count what has gone. There are seven tiles of each number in the set; when all seven 5s are on the table, an end showing 5 is dead and whoever is holding a 5 is stuck with it.

Doubles are the hardest tiles to shed — a double 6 can only ever be played against a 6. Play them early rather than holding them for a moment that may not come.

In a blocked round the pips in your hand are what you pay. Late in a round it is often right to play your heaviest legal tile rather than the one that sets up a better chain.

With a partner, watch what they knock on. A partner who passes on 3 is telling you not to leave a 3 open.