How to Win the Peg Solitaire Game (English Board)

Last Updated: February 11, 2023 References

Peg Solitaire (Sailor's Solitaire) is a very popular single player game played with a board having holes in the pattern of a plus sign. There are pegs in all the holes except one. The objective is to clear the board of all the pegs except one.

Steps

1
The board has the form of a plus sign +
2
The goal is to jump a peg over another peg onto a hole. You can jump only horizontally or vertically. The peg that has been jumped over gets removed.^{[1]
X
Research source}

Advertisement
3
Thus we remove the pegs of the board move by move. The goal is to have only one peg remaining, preferably in the middle of the board, its center. This is the inversion of the start board (you see the start board in the board above).
4
Please note that there are four side areas in the field (size 3x2) and one center area (size 3x3).
5
We start with the sides and clear one side of its pegs, then turn to each succeeding side until we have cleared the four sides. Then an big arrow remains, pointing left. This arrow covers the whole center area.
6
The trick is, we can clear each of the four sides the same way, so we only have to memorize the steps once.
7
First move is going from right to the left into the middle hole.^{[2]
X
Research source} The full board is shown here.
8
Now we are going to clear a side area. This way is always the same. We are clearing the right side. We take the peg from the top down:^{[3]
X
Research source}
9
This is an important move. It is the first move of starting the right side area.
10
Now we go from the corner towards the middle:^{[4]
X
Research source}
11
And we move from the bottom right corner to the upper right corner:
12
Now we want to go and rescue the lonely peg in the corner. So we move towards it from the left:
13
And back again. Saved the poor peg:
14
Wow, that was fun. Now we consider the right side area as cleared. There are (almost) no pegs left in that area.
15
As said we repeat the steps now for the next side area. To make this easier, you want to turn the whole board 90° to the right (clockwise).
16
Now you see, we need to clear the right area again and we do it in the same steps. So you can compare the steps above and below now.
17
So we take it down from the top. Remember, this our first step in the process.
18
Going out of the corner to the left.
19
Move in the corner again from below.
20
Rescue the lonesome peg in the corner.
21
And take it back towards the center again. Wow! Let's consider this area cleared.
22
Let's turn it again 90° to the right!
23
Same procedure again. From top down (1st step) :
24
From the corner to the inside.
25
From the bottom upward to the corner.
26
Go and get the corner peg.
27
And back in the middle. Consider the area cleared. Let's rotate again 90° to the right.
28
OK, one side left to clear.
29
Down from the top (1st).
30
To the center.
31
From bottom right corner up in the corner.
32
Now we go and get our friend in the corner again.
33
And get the poor peg towards the center.
34
We turn 90°.
35
Now we have the famous arrow pointing left.
36
We go with the peg one behind the arrow's head one circle around the arrow: Up, Right, Down twice, Left and Up again.
37
This is the position after doing the circle around the arrow: a lying T-figure.
38
From there, you take the center peg up, the left peg to the center, then the bottom two pegs up and then the two remaining pegs down.^{[5]
X
Research source}
39
We solved our game with one peg in center remaining. Please note that the remaining peg is the peg that made the very first move in the game.
40
Congratulations!
41
Here is the complete game again: We clear the four side areas, come to the arrow and then to the final lying T-figure.

Community Q&A

Question

How do I start the game? I don't understand the starting move.

Community Answer

See image 8. You move from the right to the center. The peg jumps to the left onto the center hole.
Question

We have a very old game, and the insert has been lost. It used to have a ranking depending on how many pegs are left, i.e. 1 peg in middle - genius. Do you know what those are?

Community Answer

Genius = 1 left, pretty smart = 2 left, plain dumb = 3 left, ignoramus = 4+ left. (Note that these might change depending on the manufacturer of the board. These titles are just from Cracker Barrel's version of the game.)
Question

How do I install the peg solitaire game?

Kim G

Top Answerer

You can install the app from iTunes or Google Play. Note that the game is also known as Solo Noble or Brainvita. If you want to purchase the actual board game, it is available online or any brick-and-mortar store where toys and games are sold.