Peg solitaire
How to play peg solitaire
Peg solitaire is a one-player puzzle played on a board full of pegs (or marbles) with one empty hole. It dates back to the court of Louis XIV and is familiar today as the wooden triangle peg game on restaurant tables.
Rules
- Every hole has a peg except one.
- A move is a jump: move a peg over a neighboring peg into the empty hole directly on the other side.
- The peg that was jumped over is removed.
- Keep jumping until no more jumps are possible. The goal is to leave one peg.
The boards
- English board: a cross of 33 holes, starting with the center empty. The classic challenge is to end with one peg in the center.
- Triangle: 15 holes in five rows, starting with the top hole empty. Pegs may jump in six directions along the triangle's lines.
Tips
- Clear the arms of the cross first, and save the center for last.
- Think in groups of three. Many solutions remove three pegs in an L shape with a short, repeatable pattern.
- Avoid isolated pegs. A peg with no neighbors can never be removed.
Questions
Is peg solitaire always solvable?
The English 33-hole board with the center hole empty can be solved to a single peg in the center, and so can the 15-hole triangle with the top hole empty.
How do you solve the triangle peg game?
Start with the top hole empty. Work from the edges toward the middle and avoid leaving single pegs isolated in corners. Use Undo freely to learn which moves strand pegs.
Can pegs jump diagonally?
On the English board, jumps are only up, down, left and right. On the triangle board, pegs jump along any of the three lines of the triangle.
What counts as a good score?
One peg is perfect. On the triangle, two pegs is very good and three is respectable. On the English board, finishing with three or fewer is excellent.