How to play Peg Solitaire
Peg solitaire is a board of holes, every one filled with a peg but one. Jump a peg over a neighbour into the empty hole straight beyond it, and the peg you jumped over comes off the board. Keep going until no jump is left: the fewer pegs remain, the better, and the dream is a single peg in the centre.
There are three boards here: the English cross of 33 holes, the European board of 37, and a triangle of 15 for a warm-up. Each keeps its own game in progress, and you can undo as far back as you like.
Rules
- A jump goes up, down, left or right (on the triangle also along its two slanting lines): a peg hops over the peg beside it into the empty hole just beyond, and the jumped peg is removed.
- No diagonal jumps on the square boards, no jumping over an empty hole and no jumping two pegs at once.
- The English board starts with the centre empty, and a perfect game ends with the last peg there. With the centre empty the European board can’t be solved at all, so it starts one hole in from the top and aims to finish one hole in from the bottom. The triangle starts with its top corner empty and finishes there. A double ring marks the goal hole.
- A peg that jumps again straight after its own jump is still making the same move, the classic way of counting: the shortest solution of the English board takes 18 moves.
- The round ends when no jump is left. One peg on the goal hole is Perfect, one peg anywhere else Genius, two pegs Excellent, three Very good and four Good. That ladder is our own rating, not a standard.
- Your best time counts rounds that end with one peg and no hints. The clock starts at your first jump and pauses while the tab is hidden.
Controls
- Click / tap a peg
- Pick it up: the holes it can jump into get an ink ring
- Click / tap a ringed hole
- Jump there
- Drag
- Carry a peg straight to its hole
- Click / tap an empty hole
- Jump into it, when only one peg can
- Arrows / WASD
- Move the keyboard cursor
- Space / Enter
- Pick up the peg under the cursor, or jump into the hole
- Esc
- Put the peg down
- H
- Hint
- Z / U / Backspace
- Undo
- R
- Start the board again
- P
- Pause
Tips
- Clear the arms early. The holes at the end of an arm have only one or two ways out, and pegs stranded there are the usual reason a game ends with three or four.
- Don’t leave a peg on its own. A peg with no neighbour can only leave the board if another peg travels all the way out to jump it.
- Keep the middle for last. Pegs near the centre can jump in every direction, so they are the ones that tidy up the end of a game.
- Undo freely. The board is the same every time, and backing up to try another jump is how everybody learns a line.
- Warm up on the triangle. Its 13 jumps fit in your head, so you can see a whole game at once before taking on the cross.
Peg Solitaire strategy
Work from the outside in
The holes at the end of each arm have only one or two jumps out of them. Bring those pegs in early, while the pegs that can jump them are still beside them, and leave the crowded middle for last, where every peg has a way out.
Watch what you strand
Before each jump, look at the pegs around the hole you empty and the hole you fill. A jump that leaves a peg alone on the rim needs another peg to come all the way out later. A good line keeps the pegs in one connected group.
Know when the goal is gone
On a square board every hole belongs to one of a few classes, counted along the rows and diagonals, and each jump changes the counts in a fixed pattern. That is why some holes can never hold the last peg from a given start, and why the European board can’t be solved from the centre. If a hint says the goal hole is out of reach, one peg somewhere else may still be possible.
Learn a line on the triangle
With 13 jumps the triangle is small enough to replay a whole solution from memory. The same habits, clearing corners first and keeping the pegs together, carry over to the cross.
About Peg Solitaire
The earliest evidence of peg solitaire comes from the court of Louis XIV: an engraving by Claude Auguste Berey, dated 1697, shows Anne de Rohan-Chabot, Princess of Soubise, with the puzzle beside her, and the August 1697 issue of the magazine Mercure galant described the board, its rules and sample problems. The 37-hole board is the French form from the 17th century; the 33-hole cross is the English one and today’s standard.
In 1912 Ernest Bergholt found an 18-move solution of the English board, counting a run of jumps by one peg as one move, and in 1964 John Beasley proved that none is shorter. The hints here come from our own search, which drops any position that can no longer reach the goal: a jump never raises a well-chosen weighted count of the pegs (a pagoda function), so once that count falls below the goal’s weight, the goal is gone.
Questions
Can every board be solved?
Yes. All three starting positions here can be finished with one peg on the goal hole, and our solver checks each of them. Not every position along the way can be: one wrong jump can rule out a single peg, which is when a hint tells you to undo.
Why doesn’t the European board start in the centre?
With the centre empty, no series of jumps on the 37-hole board leaves a single peg. Starting one hole in from the top works, and finishing one hole in from the bottom makes a neat mirror of it.
What counts as a move?
A jump, or a run of jumps by the same peg one straight after the other. Pegs left are what the rating goes by; moves are shown so you can chase the 18-move solution of the English board.
Is this the card game Solitaire?
No. Klondike Solitaire is a patience card game, and it is on this site too. Peg solitaire is a board puzzle for one, played with pegs or marbles. In Britain it is simply called solitaire, and the card games are called patience.
Do hints count?
A round with hints still records the pegs you left, but not a best time, and your leaderboard only takes one-peg finishes without hints.
