How to play Peg Solitaire
Peg Solitaire - also sold as Solitaire, Brainvita or Hi-Q - is played on a board full of pegs with a single empty hole. Jump a peg over one of its neighbours into the empty hole beyond, and the peg you jumped over is removed. Every jump takes one peg off the board, so the game is thirty-one moves long on the English board whether you win or not.
Tap a peg to pick it up and the holes it can reach light up; tap one to jump. The aim is to finish with a single peg, ideally in the centre.
Three boards
- English — the classic cross of 33 holes, and the one most people mean by peg solitaire.
- European — 37 holes with the corners filled in, which changes the endgame completely.
- Triangle — 15 pegs, jumps along all three directions, and quick enough to try a dozen times.
How to get past three pegs
- Never strand a peg. A peg with no neighbour can never be jumped or removed. Most losses are decided long before the end, by a peg left alone in a corner.
- Keep the pegs together. Work in a way that keeps the remaining pegs in one clump - a tight group always has moves available, a scattered one runs out.
- Clear the arms early. On the English board the four arms of the cross are the hardest places to empty at the end, so deal with them while you still have pegs to work with.
- Undo freely. Getting stuck is part of it - back up a few jumps and try a different order rather than starting again.
Frequently asked questions
How do you play Peg Solitaire?
Jump one peg over a neighbouring peg into the empty hole directly beyond it, and remove the peg you jumped. Jumps are straight - up, down, left or right - and only over a single peg into an empty hole. Keep going until you cannot jump any more.
What counts as winning?
Finishing with a single peg. On the English board a perfect game leaves that last peg in the centre hole where the game began, which is the classic target. Anything down to two or three pegs is a good game.
Why can I not jump diagonally?
On the English and European boards, jumps are orthogonal only - that is the standard rule and it is what makes the board hard. The triangle board is the exception: there jumps follow its own three directions, including the diagonals that run along its edges.
I am stuck with pegs left. Did I lose?
Only that line of play is over. Undo a few jumps and take a different route - the board is still winnable from earlier on. Most players get stuck several times before finding a line that clears it.
Is there a strategy?
Yes: avoid stranding pegs at the edges, and try to keep your remaining pegs in one connected clump rather than scattered. A peg with no neighbour can never be removed, so every isolated peg you create is one you are stuck with.
More solitaire
For the card kind, try Klondike Solitaire, FreeCell or Pyramid.