Domino terms are few, but each one has an exact meaning. Anyone who learned the game in a Georgian courtyard needs no explanation of the stavka, the bazari or the riba; a newcomer gets lost in the first hand — why did one move score and the next did not, and why did the hand end while both players still held tiles? Below, the words of Georgian domino are grouped by topic — the tiles, the play and the points — and each is explained the way the game on this site plays it, for two players. At the end, one short hand puts them all to work.
Why the words matter
In domino the same word often means different things in different families. Some call any double a stavka, some call every blocked hand a riba, and for others a nichia and a "fre" are not the same thing. Online that causes confusion, because the game applies each rule strictly. In Georgian domino, for example, there is only one stavka per hand, and a riba means a dead chain, not simply that a player cannot move. The word stavka, by the way, has nothing to do with money here: it is just the name of a tile.
Tiles and the set
- Kva (a tile, literally "stone") — one domino. It has two halves, each with 0 to 6 pips.
- The set — 28 tiles, from 0-0 to 6-6. Every combination appears once, and the pips across the whole set add up to 168.
- Dubli (a double) — a tile with the same number on both halves: 0-0, 1-1 and so on up to 6-6. There are seven doubles.
- Seven tiles per number — every number appears on exactly seven tiles. That fact is the basis of counting, of the riba and of nearly all strategy.
- Heavy and light tiles — a heavy tile has many pips (6-6, 6-5, 5-5), a light one few (0-0, 0-1, 1-1). A heavy tile left in your hand at the end is expensive.
- Kheli (a hand) — two meanings: the tiles you hold, and one deal played from start to finish. Both are used at once: "I have three tiles left in my hand" and "I won the third hand".
- The deal — before each hand the tiles are shuffled and each player takes seven. The other 14 stay face down.
Terms of play
- Opening and the opening tile — the first tile of a hand. The first hand of a match is opened by whoever holds the highest double, with that double; every later hand is opened by the winner of the previous hand, with any tile.
- Open end — an end of the chain where the next tile can go. A tile is placed where one of its halves matches the number on an open end.
- Stavka (the first double of the hand, the spinner) — there is only one; every later double is an ordinary tile. If the hand was opened with a double, that double is the stavka from the first move.
- The stavka’s third and fourth sides — once tiles lie on both main sides of the stavka, two more sides open, both asking for the stavka’s number. No other double ever opens a new direction.
- Bazari (the boneyard, literally "the market") — the 14 face-down tiles left after the deal. "Going to the bazari" means you have no move and draw until you find one.
- The two protected tiles — nobody can draw the last two tiles of the boneyard. They take no part in the hand and stay face down until it ends.
- Passing — handing the turn over. Under the Georgian standard this only happens when you have no move and only the two protected tiles remain; on the site it happens by itself. There is also a house rule, "pass only", where drawing is not allowed at all; it appears when creating a table only if the site has it switched on.
- Domino — ending the hand by playing your last tile. Whoever empties their hand first wins the hand.
- Blocking — the hand ends without anyone emptying their hand. It happens in two ways: by a riba, or when both players pass in a row with the boneyard already down to its two protected tiles.
- Riba (a dead chain, literally "fish") — every open end asks for a number of which not one tile is still reachable, in either hand or in the drawable part of the boneyard. If the matching double is in someone’s hand, it must be played first, and only then is the riba declared.
- Nichia (a draw) — after a block both players are left with the same total. Nobody scores. On the site’s screen this reads "fre" or "riba — nichia".
Scoring terms
- Sum of the open ends — the total of every open end after each tile is played. An ordinary tile counts its outer half; a double at an end counts both halves.
- Multiples of five — if the sum is 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 or 35, the player who placed the tile "writes" that many points. Any other sum scores nothing, and one move never writes more than 35.
- Writing — scoring. "He wrote ten" means a player took 10 points with one move. On the site the points appear beside the tile that made them.
- The opening tile’s score — on the first tile of a hand only 5-5 scores, for 10. Opening with 6-4 or 0-5 writes nothing, even though the sum divides by five.
- A closed stavka — once both main sides of the stavka are taken, it no longer counts towards the sum. Until then it counts both halves.
- Writing the remainder — the winner of a hand writes the pips left in the opponent’s hand, rounded up to a multiple of five: 11 becomes 15, 16 becomes 20.
- Double zero — if the opponent’s only tile left is 0-0, the winner writes 10. This is a rule of its own in Georgian domino, not a result of rounding.
- Match — play to a target: 75, 175, 255 or 355. Points add up during a hand, but the winner is only declared at the end of a hand.
- Revanshi (a rematch) — at the end of a match one player offers to play again; if the other agrees, a new match starts.
Worked example: the terms in one hand
It is the second hand of a match, so any tile may open it. Ana opens with 3-2. The sum is 5, but this is the opening tile and only 5-5 scores on it, so Ana writes nothing. The next five moves:
- Beka plays 2-2 on the two. It is the first double of the hand, so it is the stavka. Its second main side is free, so it counts both halves: 3 + 4 = 7 — no score.
- Ana plays 3-6 on the three: 6 + 4 = 10. A multiple of five — Ana writes 10.
- Beka plays 2-4 on the stavka’s free main side. The stavka is closed and leaves the sum; its third and fourth sides open, asking for a two, but an empty side does not count. Ends: 6 + 4 = 10 — Beka writes 10.
- Ana plays 2-1 on the third side: 6 + 4 + 1 = 11 — no score.
- Beka plays 4-4 on the four. This is now an ordinary double — it opens no new side, but at an end it counts both halves: 6 + 8 + 1 = 15 — Beka writes 15.
If Beka went on to play his last tile first while Ana held 6-5 and 0-1 (12 pips), Beka would write 15, because the remainder is rounded up. Had Ana kept only 0-0, Beka would write 10. And if the chain died — say both ends ask for a three while all seven threes are already on the board — that is a riba: the player with fewer pips in hand wins and writes the opponent’s total, rounded up. With equal totals it is a nichia and nobody writes.
Words you will see on the site
- Quick play — the system finds you an opponent.
- Ranked and casual — a ranked result moves the leaderboard, a casual one does not.
- Bot — a computer opponent with three levels: easy, normal and hard. It plays by the same rules and cannot see your tiles.
- Guest — a player without an account, who can play casual matches and the bot and save their results later.
- Open and private tables — an open table is listed in the lobby; a private one is joined only by link, with an optional password.
Words people mix up most
Three pairs cause most of the confusion. Stavka and double: every stavka is a double, but not every double is a stavka, because a hand has only one. Riba and passing: passing is one player’s situation, a riba is the whole chain’s — it can be declared while both players still hold tiles. Hand and match: a hand is one deal, a match is several hands up to the chosen target, and "hand won" and "match won" are different messages on the site.
Frequently asked questions
- How is the stavka different from an ordinary double?
- The stavka is the first double of the hand and the only one that opens four ways. Every other double is an ordinary tile: placed crosswise and counted with both halves at an end, but it never opens a new direction.
- Are a riba and a blocked hand the same thing?
- Not quite. A block is the general word for a hand ending with nobody out. A riba is one kind of block: the chain is dead because no tile with the needed number is left anywhere. Both are scored the same way.
- What is a nichia in domino?
- A blocked hand in which both players are left with the same total. Nobody scores and the match continues with the next hand.
Domino on tamashebi.cc is free to play. Coin tables use only Domino Coin, a virtual in-game coin: it is not money, cannot be bought, cannot be exchanged for money and means nothing outside the site.
The games on Tamashebi.cc are played in a Georgian-language interface. They are free and use a virtual coin, never real money.