The Professional Domino Association’s 2006 tournament season begins February 11th with a qualifier tournament in Los Angeles. Subsequent tournaments will be held at roughly two-week intervals, in 11 additional cities around the United States, thru the end of July. The final championship tournament, dubbed the PDA National Championships, will take place in Las Vegas on August 19th.

Each qualifier tournament boasts a $30,000 prize purse, with a $150,000 grand prize total at the Championship tourney in Las Vegas. In addition to cash prizes, first place winners receive waived registration fees, free travel and hotel accommodations. There are also plans underway for a television series, and, eventually, online tournaments as well.

The entry fee for each tournament is $300 ($200 for PDA members), and a $15 admission fee for non-players. There is a limit of 128 players per tournament. The PDA plays a version of All Fives Dominoes, with each game played to 150 points. Best 2 out of 3 takes a match in early rounds; later tournament rounds feature more games. Refer to the official tournament rules for details.

If you think you’ve got what it takes to play with the big boys, check out the tournament schedule, find one near you, and enter for your chance at dominoes glory.

Click here for the tournament schedule, complete rules, and registration forms.

Note: This post was originally published in the Dominoes forum.

The story of the sparrow killed at the Domino Day event in the Netherlands has sparked worldwide interest. The following is the story as posted by the Associate Press:

November 14, 2005, 5:01 PM ESTAMSTERDAM, Netherlands — A sparrow knocked over 23,000 dominoes in the Netherlands, nearly ruining a world record attempt before it was shot to death Monday, the state news agency reported.

The unfortunate bird flew through an open window at an exposition center in the northern city of Leeuwarden where employees of television company Endemol NV have worked for weeks setting up more than 4 million dominoes in an attempt to break the official Guinness World Record for falling dominoes on Friday night.

Only a system of 750 built-in gaps in the chain prevented the bird from knocking most or all of the dominoes over ahead of schedule, “Domino Day” organizers were quoted as saying by the NOS news agency.

The bird was shot by an exterminator with an air rifle while cowering in a corner.

The organizers are out to break their own record of 3,992,397 dominoes set last year with a new record of 4,321,000.

The following are a few of the online articles discussing the incident:

• Sparrow executed for disturbing dominoes
• Domino killing ruffles feathers
• Probe into death of domino record sparrow
• Threats to man who shot domino-toppling sparrow
• Record chasers in a flap as bird topples domino bid
• Death threat for killer of Domino-toppling sparrow

There has even been a web site set up in honor of the fallen sparrow, complete with condolences and up-to-the-minute news (all in Dutch).

As of mid-December, the story was that the sparrow that was killed during the 2005 Domino Day event will end up in the Rotterdam Natural History Museum in the Netherlands.

The bird had been preserved in a freezer since it was shot with an air rifle after knocking over 23,000 dominoes that had been set up for an attempt at a new domino-toppling record. The deceased domino-toppler will be displayed atop a box of dominoes in the museum as part of an exhibition on sparrows.

The exterminator who killed the bird was fined 200 euro by Dutch prosecutors, because the common house sparrow had been placed on the nation’s endangered list.

Note: This post was originally published in the Dominoes forum.

This news blog will feature news items about the world of dominoes, including:

• Dominoes in the news – mentions of dominoes in newspapers, magazines, television, and on other web sites
• News about domino tournaments, competitions, and events
• Announcements of new Domino games and updates
• Domino-Games.com site news

This site originally included a dominoes forum, which covered much of this same information. However, the forum was relentlessly besieged by spammers, and became too difficult and time-consuming to maintain.

This news blog will provide a more streamlined and secure format for posting dominoes-related news. It also allows you to monitor for new information via the RSS Feed.