The first set of dominoes appeared in China sometime between the 12th and 14th century, around the same time as playing cards. The original configuration was influenced by a popular dice game at the time, known as Tien Gow.
The Chinese dominoes each showed one of the 21 possible rolls on two cubic dice. 11 of these combinations were duplicated, for a complete set of 32 dominoes, none of which had a blank end.
Eventually, variations appeared, including a 56-tile set during the Ming dynasty around the 17th century, which included blank ends. Since the configuration was essentially that of two 28-tile double-six sets combined, some believe that this influenced the sets that eventually made their way to Europe around 100 year later.
Today, we mainly know the 28-tile set, which is the 21 dice combinations, plus 7 with a blank end and the roll of a single die, and finally a double-blank.
Later domino sets in the West added double-nine and double-twelve configurations for larger, more complex games. Like dice, the spots on dominoes are called “pips.”
Tien Gow began as a dice game in China, but it quickly adapted to dominoes around the same time they were invented, as a trick-taking game!
Did you know that dominoes were invented in China? Learn to play some of the oldest games that use the domino set in its original form.