An Introduction to Domino

Dominoes are simple building blocks that can be assembled in many ways in order to create a large variety of games, ranging from the simple to the complex, from games in which the game play is almost mechanical, to games that require great skill and strategy.

The traditional western domino set consists of 28 dominoes, informally nicknamed bones, tiles, stones, or spinners. Each domino is a rectangular tile with a line dividing its face into two square ends. Each end is marked with a number of spots, which are also called pips, or is left blank.

Historically dominoes sets were carved from ivory, or bone, with small, contrasting round pips of inlaid dark hardwood. Modern commercial domino sets are usually made of synthetic materials. Alternately, domino sets have been made from stone; other hardwoods; metals; ceramic clay, or even frosted glass or crystal.

The oldest known domino set dates to 1355 BCE and was found in Tutankhamen's tomb in Egypt. Dominoes, however, as most of the Western world knows them appear to be a Chinese invention with some historical accounts tracing the existence of the domino pieces to a legendary soldier-hero named Hung Ming* (181-234 CE), while other historians believe that the Chinese sage Keung T'ai Kung** had created them, with his ingenuity in the twelfth century BCE.

The Chinese document ‘Chu sz yam’ (Investigations on the Traditions of All Things) stated that dominoes were invented by a statesman in 1120 CE, Who have presented them to the Emperor Hui Tsung, before they were circulated abroad by imperial order during the reign of Hui's son, Kao-Tsung (1127-1163 CE). Other interpreters say that this document refers to the standardization and not the invention of the game itself.

Regardless of who invented them, Chinese dominoes were apparently derived from cubic dice, which had been introduced into China from India some where during ancient times. Each domino originally represented one of the twenty-one results of throwing two dice. One half of the tile is set with the pips from one die and the other half contains the pips from the second die. Chinese sets also introduced duplicates of some throws and divided the dominoes into two classes: military and civil, totaling at of 32 tiles per set.

Although a single domino tile, along with other gaming artifacts, was found in the wreck of the Mary Rose, a 16th century warship of Henry VIII, it is believed that Dominoes made their first appearance in Europe in Italy, possibly in Venice and Naples, during the 18th Century. The game changed somewhat during its migration from Chinese to European culture, leaving both the class distinctions and the duplicates that went with them behind. European sets however contained seven additional dominos with six of these representing the values that result from throwing a single die with the other half of the tile left blank and a seventh tile with both halves left blank.

Today, dominoes are played in countless ways almost everywhere around the world, from North to South and from East to West. In America, in Asia, in Africa, Australia and in Europe, from big cities to small towns and villages they can be seen in pubs, cafes, and parks.

Notes:
* Hero of the popular romance, the ‘Sám Kwok chi’ He invented them for the amusement of his soldiers, to keep them awake in their camp during the watches of the night.
** Also know as Kiang Tse-ya. From the great mythological romance ‘Fung Shen Yen I’, He became chief counselor to the emperor at age of eighty when the ruler found him fishing with a straight iron hook out of his goodness of heart. Such virtue, so the book says, attracted the fish as well as the emperor