How to play Peg Solitaire: finishing with one peg

Peg Solitaire has been played for over 300 years. Ending with a single peg is a real achievement, and ending with that peg in the centre is the classic perfect game.

The rules

The English board is a cross of 33 holes. You start with 32 pegs and the centre hole empty. A move is a jump: a peg jumps over a neighbouring peg into an empty hole directly beyond, left, right, up or down, and the peg it jumped over is removed. The game ends when no jumps are left. The fewer pegs remaining, the better; one is a win.

How good is my result?

• 4 or more pegs: a good start. Keep practising.
• 2 or 3 pegs: very good.
• 1 peg: excellent. You’ve solved it.
• 1 peg in the centre: perfect.

Strategy 1: think in arms

The board has a centre square and four arms. Clear one arm at a time instead of jumping wherever you can. Scattered pegs in different arms can’t reach each other later.

Strategy 2: never strand a peg

A peg alone at the tip of an arm, with no neighbour, can never move or be removed. Before every jump, check whether it leaves a peg isolated.

Strategy 3: the three-peg clear

A row of three pegs next to an empty hole can be cleared with a short pattern: jump the end peg in, then bring a peg from the side across to finish. Learning to remove pegs in threes like this is the key to cleaning up each arm.

Strategy 4: come back to the centre

As the board empties, steer your last pegs toward the middle. That keeps them close enough to jump each other, and sets up a centre finish.

Use undo

The best way to learn is to play to the end, then undo back to where things went wrong and try again. You can undo every jump on BoardGameSite.