Bonesai 2026

Bonesai is a two-player game played with an ordinary double-six domino set — no other components are needed. A double starts the game as the root of a tree: regular tiles extend branches straight or turn to fork them, and a double played crosswise closes a branch for good. Hands are open, as in chess; the only randomness left is the face-down boneyard.

A round ends when nobody can play (or someone goes out), and the pips left in hand decide it — so the player with the lighter hand strangles the tree shut while the heavier one branches to buy time. A match is a series of short rounds played to 100 points.

The rules are published under a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0) in seven languages, and a free browser version exists with hot-seat play and a bot.