Chicken Foot
A double played freezes the whole table: until three tiles are set against it, there is nowhere else to play.
Chicken Foot turns on a single rule that inverts ordinary dominoes: a double here is not a minor nuisance but a halt to the whole game.
Play a double, announce it aloud, and the table freezes. Until three tiles are set against it in a fan, nobody may play anywhere else.
What that does to the turn order
In ordinary dominoes an awkward double is dumped and forgotten. Here it is played deliberately and at a chosen moment: if a neighbour is down to one tile, a double will almost certainly send them into the .
So doubles are held back rather than shed, and the closer the game gets to its end, the tighter it becomes as fewer of them remain in hand.
Double-Nine Set
Under these rules: Fifty-five tiles. Two or three players can use a double-six; a large company takes a double-twelve.
Fifty-five tiles covering every pairing of halves up to nine-nine.
The larger set for a larger company: more numbers on the halves means more pairings, and enough to deal to six or eight. It holds ten doubles rather than seven, which changes any game where a double means something.
The rules of Chicken Foot
The rounds
A game runs in rounds. The first opens with the nine-nine, the next with the eight-eight, and so down to the blank double.
The round is begun by whoever holds the required double. If nobody has it, everyone draws a tile and checks again.
The deal
Each player is dealt tiles — how many depends on the number of players and the size of the set. The remainder forms the chicken yard.
The opening double goes in the centre.
Four arms
Tiles are first set against all four sides of the opening double, and only then do the grow on further.
The turn
One tile is played per turn onto any available end, matching numbers.
With no play, draw one from the chicken yard. If it fits, play it at once; if not, the turn passes. Once the yard is empty, a player with no move simply passes.
The foot
A double is laid crosswise and announced aloud.
The table is then frozen: three tiles must be set against the double, spread like toes — the . Until all three are down, no play may be made elsewhere.
This applies to the opening double too, even though it does not stand at the end of an arm.
End of a round
A round ends when somebody plays out all their tiles, or when nobody can move.
Whoever went out records zero; the others record the total pips left in hand.
Winning
After the last round the lowest total across the whole game wins.
Worth knowing
The size of an opening hand is fixed nowhere and varies noticeably: for four players with a double-nine set both eleven tiles and ten are named. The value of the blank double varies too — fifty penalty points or twenty-five. How many tiles are left undrawn in the chicken yard is likewise local.
Glossary of terms
- Arm
- A branch of the layout growing from the opening double or from a foot.
- Chicken yard
- The face-down stock drawn from when there is no play.
- The foot
- Three tiles set against a double in a fan. Until they are down, no play may be made anywhere else.