This is the original “Solitaire” game, and for centuries it went by that name alone. About twenty years ago, however, that changed, with the advent of Windows 3.0 and a simple computer version of Klondike, a solitaire card game, which went on to become the most played computer game of all time (by many accounts). Since then Solitaire has taken on a completely different meaning, and hardly anyone has even heard of the name “Klondike.”
Thus we now know this classic game as Peg Solitaire, in reference to the fact that most physical versions use pegs in holes rather than pieces on a board. This has a few advantages, although the main one is that the game can be picked up and moved around without the pieces all falling off. There is no actual need for pegs, however -- just as you can play Checkers with a pegged board if you wanted to, you can just as easily play Peg Solitaire without one. I’ll be referring to the pieces as pegs, but it’s important to remember that this is an entirely arbitrary label.
Equipment
There are two main types of boards, the English and the European. Each has a different number of holes and thus requires a different number of “pegs,” for which you can just substitute pennies or checkers or stones or whatever. The English requires 32 and the European 36. As always, you can print out the boards for free by clicking on the links above.
Rules
The game is very simple: the board starts completely filled with pegs. You then remove one of the pegs from anywhere on the board, and try to remove the rest of the pegs by simply jumping them over one another. A piece jumps over an orthogonally adjacent piece to an empty space just beyond it (read: exactly the same as every other jumping game). The piece that was jumped over is removed from the board.
You keep doing this for as long as possible. If you manage to remove all the pegs but one from the board, you win -- although a proper victory requires that the last peg occupy the same space that started empty at the beginning of the game. So if you had originally removed a piece from the center, your final peg would have to be in the center for you to get the “full” victory. Even a shallow victory, though, is something to be proud of.
If there are no more available jumps but you still have more than one peg on the board, you lose the game. The fewer pegs you have left the better, though. Don’t beat yourself up just because you can’t finish -- getting down to just two or three pegs is still pretty impressive.
It’s important to note that not all starting spaces can be won. If you can’t beat the game with a particular space starting empty, try another one. Most notable, perhaps, is that the game is not winnable if you start with an empty center on a European board. It has been mathematically proven to be impossible, so good luck with that one. Other spaces will work, though.
