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org/wiki/Peg_solitaire

Peg solitaire
Peg solitaire (or Solo Noble) is a board game for one player involving movement of pegs on a board with holes. Some
sets use marbles in a board with indentations. The game is known simply as Solitaire in the United Kingdom where the
card games are called Patience. It is also referred to as Brainvita (especially in India).

The first evidence of the game can be traced back to the court of Louis XIV, and the specific date of 1687, with an engraving
made that year by Claude Auguste Berey of Anne de Rohan-Chabot, Princess of Soubise, with the puzzle by her side. The
August 1687 edition of the French literary magazine Mercure galant contains a description of the board, rules and sample
problems. This is the first known reference to the game in print.

The standard game fills the entire board with pegs except for the central hole. The objective is, making valid moves, to
empty the entire board except for a solitary peg in the central hole.

Contents
Board
The Princess of Soubise playing
Play
solitaire, 1687
Strategy
Studies on peg solitaire
Solutions to the English game
Brute force attack on standard English peg solitaire
Solutions to the European game
Board variants
References
Further reading
External links

Board
There are two traditional boards ('.' as an initial peg, 'o' as an initial hole):

English European

· · · · · ·
· · · · · · · ·
· · · · · · · · · · · · · ·
· · · o · · · · · · o · · ·
· · · · · · · · · · · · · ·
· · · · · · · ·
· · · · · ·

English peg solitaire board European peg solitaire

board

Play
A valid move is to jump a peg orthogonally over an adjacent peg into a hole two positions away and then to remove the
jumped peg.

In the diagrams which follow, · indicates a peg in a hole, * emboldened indicates the peg to be moved, and o indicates an
empty hole. A blue ¤ is the hole the current peg moved from; a red * is the final position of that peg, a red o is the hole of
the peg that was jumped and removed.

Thus valid moves in each of the four orthogonal directions are: Playing Peg solitaire

* · o → ¤ o * Jump to right

o · * → * o ¤ Jump to left

* ¤
· → o Jump down
o *

o *
· → o Jump up
* ¤

On an English board, the first three moves might be:

· · · · · · · · · · · ·
· * · · ¤ · · o · · * ·
· · · · · · · · · · o · · · · ¤ o * · · · · o o o · · ·

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· · · o · · · · · · * · · · · · · · · · · · · · ¤ · · ·
· · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · ·
· · · · · · · · · · · ·
· · · · · · · · · · · ·

Strategy
There are many different solutions to the standard problem, and one notation used to describe them assigns letters to the
holes:

English European
a b c a b c
d e f y d e f z
g h i j k l m g h i j k l m
n o p x P O N n o p x P O N A man playing triangular peg
M L K J I H G M L K J I H G
F E D Z F E D Y solitaire at a Cracker Barrel
C B A C B A
restaurant.

This mirror image notation is used, amongst other reasons, since on the European board, one set of alternative games is to
start with a hole at some position and to end with a single peg in its mirrored position. On the English board the equivalent alternative games are to start with a hole
and end with a peg at the same position.

There is no solution to the European board with the initial hole centrally located, if only orthogonal moves are permitted. This is easily seen as follows, by an argument
from Hans Zantema. Divide the positions of the board into A, B and C positions as follows:

A B C
A B C A B
A B C A B C A
B C A B C A B
C A B C A B C
B C A B C
A B C

Initially with only the central position free, the number of covered A positions is 12, the number of covered B positions is 12, and also the number of covered C
positions is 12. After every move the number of covered A positions increases or decreases by one, and the same for the number of covered B positions and the number
of covered C positions. Hence after an even number of moves all these three numbers are even, and after an odd number of moves all these three numbers are odd.
Hence a final position with only one peg cannot be reached, since that would require that one of these numbers is one (the position of the peg, one is odd), while the
other two numbers are zero, hence even.

There are, however, several other configurations where a single initial hole can be reduced to a single peg.

A tactic that can be used is to divide the board into packages of three and to purge (remove) them entirely using one extra peg, the catalyst, that jumps out and then
jumps back again. In the example below, the * is the catalyst.:

* · o ¤ o * o * · * o ¤
· → · → o → o
· · ¤ o

This technique can be used with a line of 3, a block of 2·3 and a 6-peg L shape with a base of length 3 and upright of length 4.

Other alternate games include starting with two empty holes and finishing with two pegs in those holes. Also starting with one hole here and ending with one peg there.
On an English board, the hole can be anywhere and the final peg can only end up where multiples of three permit. Thus a hole at a can only leave a single peg at a, p, O
or C.

Studies on peg solitaire

A thorough analysis of the game is known.[1] This analysis introduced a notion called pagoda function which is a strong tool to show the infeasibility of a given,
generalized, peg solitaire, problem.

A solution for finding a pagoda function, which demonstrates the infeasibility of a given problem, is formulated as a linear programming problem and solvable in
polynomial time.[2]

A paper in 1990 dealt with the generalized Hi-Q problems which are equivalent to the peg solitaire problems and showed their NP-completeness.[3]

A 1996 paper formulated a peg solitaire problem as a combinatorial optimization problem and discussed the properties of the feasible region called 'a solitaire cone'.[4]

In 1999 peg solitaire was completely solved on a computer using an exhaustive search through all possible variants. It was achieved making use of the symmetries,
efficient storage of board constellations and hashing.[5]

In 2001 an efficient method for solving peg solitaire problems.[2]

An unpublished study from 1989 on a generalized version of the game on the English board showed that each possible problem in the generalized game has 29 possible
distinct solutions, excluding symmetries, as the English board contains 9 distinct 3×3 sub-squares. One consequence of this analysis is to put a lower bound on the size
of possible "inverted position" problems, in which the cells initially occupied are left empty and vice versa. Any solution to such a problem must contain a minimum of
11 moves, irrespective of the exact details of the problem.

It can be proved using abstract algebra that there are only 5 fixed board positions where the game can successfully end with one peg.[6]

Solutions to the English game

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The shortest solution to the standard English game involves 18 moves, counting multiple jumps as single moves:

Shortest solution to English peg solitaire  

e-x l-j c-k

· · · · · · · · · · · ¤
· * · · ¤ · · o · · o o
· · · · · · · · · · o · · · · · · * o ¤ · · · · · * o ·
· · · o · · · · · · * · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · ·
· · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · ·
· · · · · · · · · · · ·
· · · · · · · · · · · ·

P-f D-P G-I J-H

· · o · · o · · o · · o
· o * · o · · o · · o ·
· · · · o o · · · · · o o · · · · · o o · · · · · o o ·
· · · · ¤ · · · · · · * · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · ·
· · · · · · · · · · · o · · · · · · * o ¤ · · · ¤ o * o
· · · · · ¤ · · o · · o
· · · · · · · · · · · ·

m-G-I i-k g-i L-J-H-l-j-h

· · o · · o · · o · · o
· o · · o · · o · · o ·
· · · · o o ¤ · · ¤ o * o o ¤ o * o · o o o * o o o o o
· · · · · · o · · · · · · o · · · · · · o · · · · · o o
· · · o * o o · · · o · o o · · · o · o o · ¤ o o o o o
· · o · · o · · o · · o
· · · · · · · · · · · ·

C-K p-F A-C-K M-g-i

· · o · · o · · o · · o
· o · · o · · o · · o ·
o · o o o o o o · o o o o o o · o o o o o o o * o o o o
· · · · · o o · · ¤ · · o o · · o · · o o o · o · · o o
· o * o o o o · o o o o o o · o * o o o o ¤ o · o o o o
o · o * · o o · o o · o
¤ · · o · · o o ¤ o o o

a-c-k-I d-p-F-D-P-p o-x

¤ o o o o o o o o
· o o ¤ o o o o o
o o · o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
o · o · o o o o · * o o o o o ¤ o * o o o
o o · o * o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
o · o o o o o o o
o o o o o o o o o

The order of some of the moves can be exchanged. Note that if you instead think of * as a hole and o as

a peg, you can solve the puzzle by following the solution in reverse, starting from the last picture, going

towards the first. However, this requires more than 18 moves.

This solution was found in 1912 by Ernest Bergholt and proven to be the shortest possible by John Beasley in 1964.[7]

This solution can also be seen on a page that also introduces the Wolstenholme notation (http://www.topaccolades.com/notation/solitaire.htm), which is designed to
make memorizing the solution easier.

Other solutions include the following list. In these, the notation used is

List of starting holes

Colon
List of end target pegs
Equals sign
Source peg and destination hole (you have to work out what it jumps over yourself)
, or / (a slash is used to separate 'chunks' such as a six-purge out)

x:x=ex,lj,ck,Pf,DP,GI,JH,mG,GI,ik,gi,LJ,JH,Hl,lj,jh,CK,pF,AC,CK,Mg,gi,ac,ck,kI,dp,pF,FD,DP,Pp,ox
x:x=ex,lj,xe/hj,Ki,jh/ai,ca,fd,hj,ai,jh/MK,gM,hL,Fp,MK,pF/CK,DF,AC,JL,CK,LJ/PD,GI,mG,JH,GI,DP/Ox
j:j=lj,Ik,jl/hj,Ki,jh/mk,Gm,Hl,fP,mk,Pf/ai,ca,fd,hj,ai,jh/MK,gM,hL,Fp,MK,pF/CK,DF,AC,JL,CK,LJ/Jj
i:i=ki,Jj,ik/lj,Ik,jl/AI,FD,CA,HJ,AI,JH/mk,Hl,Gm,fP,mk,Pf/ai,ca,fd,hj,ai,jh/gi,Mg,Lh,pd,gi,dp/Ki
e:e=xe/lj,Ik,jl/ck,ac,df,lj,ck,jl/GI,lH,mG,DP,GI,PD/AI,FD,CA,JH,AI,HJ/pF,MK,gM,JL,MK,Fp/hj,ox,xe
d:d=fd,xe,df/lj,ck,ac,Pf,ck,jl/DP,KI,PD/GI,lH,mG,DP,GI,PD/CK,DF,AC,LJ,CK,JL/MK,gM,hL,pF,MK,Fp/pd
b:b=jb,lj/ck,ac,Pf,ck/DP,GI,mG,JH,GI,PD/LJ,CK,JL/MK,gM,hL,pF,MK,Fp/xo,dp,ox/xe/AI/BJ,JH,Hl,lj,jb
b:x=jb,lj/ck,ac,Pf,ck/DP,GI,mG,JH,GI,PD/LJ,CK,JL/MK,gM,hL,pF,MK,Fp/xo,dp,ox/xe/AI/BJ,JH,Hl,lj,ex
a:a=ca,jb,ac/lj,ck,jl/Ik,pP,KI,lj,Ik,jl/GI,lH,mG,DP,GI,PD/CK,DF,AC,LJ,CK,JL/dp,gi,pd,Mg,Lh,gi/ia
a:p=ca,jb,ac/lj,ck,jl/Ik,pP,KI,lj,Ik,jl/GI,lH,mG,DP,GI,PD/CK,DF,AC,LJ,CK,JL/dp,gi,pd,Mg,Lh,gi/dp

Brute force attack on standard English peg solitaire

The only place it is possible to end up with a solitary peg is the centre, or the middle of one of the edges; on the last jump, there will always be an option of choosing
whether to end in the centre or the edge.

Following is a table over the number (Possible Board Positions) of possible board positions after n jumps, and the possibility of the same pawn moved to make a
further jump (No Further Jumps).

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NOTE: If one board position can be rotated and/or flipped into another board position, the board positions are counted as identical.

n PBP NFJ n PBP NFJ n PBP NFJ n PBP NFJ

1 1 0 11 229,614 1 21 1,160,977 1,972 31 2 2

2 2 0 12 517,854 0 22 600,372 3,346

3 8 0 13 1,022,224 5 23 265,865 4,356

4 39 0 14 1,753,737 10 24 100,565 4,256

5 171 0 15 2,598,215 7 25 32,250 3,054

6 719 1 16 3,312,423 27 26 8,688 1,715

7 2,757 0 17 3,626,632 47 27 1,917 665

8 9,751 0 18 3,413,313 121 28 348 182

9 31,312 0 19 2,765,623 373 29 50 39

10 89,927 1 20 1,930,324 925 30 7 6

Since there can only be 31 jumps, modern computers can easily examine all game positions in a reasonable time.

The above sequence "PBP" has been entered as A112737 in OEIS. Note that the total number of reachable board positions (sum of the sequence) is 23,475,688, while
the total number of possible board positions is 8.589.934.590 (33bit-1) (2^33) , So only about 2.2% of all possible board positions can be reached starting with the
center vacant.

It is also possible to generate all board positions. The results below have been obtained using the mcrl2 toolset (http://www.mcrl2.org) (see the peg_solitaire example
in the distribution).

n PBP n PBP n PBP n PBP

1 1 9 77,559 17 26,482,824 25 800,152

2 4 10 249,690 18 28,994,876 26 255,544

3 12 11 717,788 19 27,286,330 27 68,236

4 60 12 1,834,379 20 22,106,348 28 14,727

5 296 13 4,138,302 21 15,425,572 29 2,529

6 1,338 14 8,171,208 22 9,274,496 30 334

7 5,648 15 14,020,166 23 4,792,664 31 32

8 21,842 16 20,773,236 24 2,120,101 32 5

In the results below It is generate all board positions really reached starting with the center vacant and finish in central hole.

n Real n Real n Real n Real

1 1 9 49,236 17 1,841,556 25 16,628

2 4 10 127,964 18 1,639,652 26 5,012

3 12 11 285,740 19 1,298,248 27 1,292

4 60 12 546,308 20 902,056 28 292

5 292 13 902,056 21 546,308 29 60

6 1,292 14 1,298,248 22 285,740 30 12

7 5,012 15 1,639,652 23 127,964 31 4

8 16,628 16 1,841,556 24 49,236 32 1

Solutions to the European game

There are 3 initial non-congruent positions that have solutions.[8] These are:

1)

0 1 2 3 4 5 6
0 o · ·
1 · · · · ·
2 · · · · · · ·
3 · · · · · · ·
4 · · · · · · ·

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5 · · · · ·
6 · · ·

Possible solution: [2:2-0:2, 2:0-2:2, 1:4-1:2, 3:4-1:4, 3:2-3:4, 2:3-2:1, 5:3-3:3, 3:0-3:2, 5:1-3:1, 4:5-4:3, 5:5-5:3, 0:4-2:4, 2:1-4:1, 2:4-4:4, 5:2-5:4, 3:6-3:4, 1:1-1:3,
2:6-2:4, 0:3-2:3, 3:2-5:2, 3:4-3:2, 6:2-4:2, 3:2-5:2, 4:0-4:2, 4:3-4:1, 6:4-6:2, 6:2-4:2, 4:1-4:3, 4:3-4:5, 4:6-4:4, 5:4-3:4, 3:4-1:4, 1:5-1:3, 2:3-0:3, 0:2-0:4]

2)

0 1 2 3 4 5 6
0 · · ·
1 · · o · ·
2 · · · · · · ·
3 · · · · · · ·
4 · · · · · · ·
5 · · · · ·
6 · · ·

Possible solution: [1:1-1:3, 3:2-1:2, 3:4-3:2, 1:4-3:4, 5:3-3:3, 4:1-4:3, 2:1-4:1, 2:6-2:4, 4:4-4:2, 3:4-1:4, 3:2-3:4, 5:1-3:1, 4:6-2:6, 3:0-3:2, 4:5-2:5, 0:2-2:2, 2:6-2:4,
6:4-4:4, 3:4-5:4, 2:3-2:1, 2:0-2:2, 1:4-3:4, 5:5-5:3, 6:3-4:3, 4:3-4:1, 6:2-4:2, 3:2-5:2, 4:0-4:2, 5:2-3:2, 3:2-1:2, 1:2-1:4, 0:4-2:4, 3:4-1:4, 1:5-1:3, 0:3-2:3]

and 3)

0 1 2 3 4 5 6
0 · · ·
1 · · · · ·
2 · · · o · · ·
3 · · · · · · ·
4 · · · · · · ·
5 · · · · ·
6 · · ·

Possible solution: [2:1-2:3, 0:2-2:2, 4:1-2:1, 4:3-4:1, 2:3-4:3, 1:4-1:2, 2:1-2:3, 0:4-0:2, 4:4-4:2, 3:4-1:4, 6:3-4:3, 1:1-1:3, 4:6-4:4, 5:1-3:1, 2:6-2:4, 1:4-1:2, 0:2-2:2,
3:6-3:4, 4:3-4:1, 6:2-4:2, 2:3-2:1, 4:1-4:3, 5:5-5:3, 2:0-2:2, 2:2-4:2, 3:4-5:4, 4:3-4:1, 3:0-3:2, 6:4-4:4, 4:0-4:2, 3:2-5:2, 5:2-5:4, 5:4-3:4, 3:4-1:4, 1:5-1:3]

Board variants
Peg solitaire has been played on other size boards, although the two given above are the most popular. It has also been played on a triangular board, with jumps
allowed in all 3 directions. As long as the variant has the proper "parity" and is large enough, it will probably be solvable.

Peg solitaire game board shapes:

(1) French (European) style, 37 holes, 17th century;
(2) J. C. Wiegleb, 1779, Germany, 45 holes;
(3) Asymmetrical 3-3-2-2 as described by George Bell, 20th century;
(4) English style (standard), 33 holes;
(5) Diamond, 41 holes;
(6) Triangular, 15 holes.
Grey = the hole for the survivor.

A common triangular variant has five pegs on a side. A solution where the final peg arrives at the initial empty hole is not possible for a hole in one of the three central
positions. An empty corner-hole setup can be solved in ten moves, and an empty midside-hole setup in nine (Bell 2008):

Shortest solution to triangular variant  

* = peg to move next; ¤ = hole created by move; o = jumped peg removed; * = hole filled by jumping;

· · · * ¤
· · · · · · · * o ¤
· · · · · · * · · ¤ · · * o ·
· · · · · · · · · · · · · o · · * * · *
* · o · · ¤ o * * · o * o ¤ · o · * o · o · · o ·

o o o o o
* * * * ¤ ¤ o o o o
o o o o * * o o o o o * o o ¤
¤ · · ¤ o o o o o o * * o o · o o o o o
o * * o · o ¤ ¤ o · o o o o * o o o o ¤ o o * o o

References
1. Berlekamp, E. R.; Conway, J. H.; Guy, R. K. (2001) [1981], Winning Ways for your Mathematical Plays (paperback)|format= requires |url= (help) (2nd ed.), A
K Peters/CRC Press, ISBN 978-1568811307, OCLC 316054929 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/316054929)
2. Kiyomi, M.; Matsui, T. (2001), "Integer Programming Based Algorithms for Peg Solitaire Problems", Proc. 2nd Int. Conf. Computers and Games (CG 2000): Integer
programming based algorithms for peg solitaire problems, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2063, pp. 229–240, CiteSeerX 10.1.1.65.6244 (https://citeseerx.ist.

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psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.65.6244), doi:10.1007/3-540-45579-5_15 (https://doi.org/10.1007%2F3-540-45579-5_15), ISBN 978-3-540-43080-3

3. Uehara, R.; Iwata, S. (1990). "Generalized Hi-Q is NP-complete". Trans. IEICE. 73: 270–273.
4. Avis, D.; Deza, A. (2001), "On the solitaire cone and its relationship to multi-commodity flows", Mathematical Programming, 90 (1): 27–57,
doi:10.1007/PL00011419 (https://doi.org/10.1007%2FPL00011419)
5. Eichler; Jäger; Ludwig (1999), c't 07/1999 Spielverderber, Solitaire mit dem Computer lösen (in German), 7, p. 218
6. "Mathematics and brainvita" (https://notesonmathematics.wordpress.com/2012/08/28/the-mathematics-of-brainvita/), Notes on Mathematics, 28 August 2012,
retrieved 6 September 2018
7. For Beasley's proof see Winning Ways, volume #4 (second edition).
8. Brassine, Michel (December 1981), "Découvrez... le solitaire", Jeux et Stratégie (in French)

Further reading
Beasley, John D. (1985), The Ins & Outs of Peg Solitaire, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0198532033
Bell, G. I. (2008), "Solving triangular peg solitaire", Journal of Integer Sequences, 11: Article 08.4.8, arXiv:math.CO/0703865 (https://arxiv.org/abs/math.CO/07038
65).
Bruijn, N.G. de (1972), "A solitaire game and its relation to a finite field" (http://alexandria.tue.nl/repository/freearticles/598441.pdf) (PDF), Journal of Recreational
Mathematics, 5: 133–137
Cross, D. C. (1968), "Square solitaire and variations", Journal of Recreational Mathematics, 1: 121–123
Gardner, M., "Mathematical games", Scientific American 206 (6): 156–166, June 1962; 214 (2): 112–113, Feb. 1966; 214 (5): 127, May 1966.
Jefferson, Chris; et al. (October 2006), "Modelling and Solving English Peg Solitairet", Computers & Operations Research, 33 (10): 2935–2959,
CiteSeerX 10.1.1.5.7805 (https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.5.7805), doi:10.1016/j.cor.2005.01.018 (https://doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.cor.200
5.01.018)

External links
Bogomolny, Alexander, "Peg Solitaire and Group Theory" (http://www.cut-the-knot.org/proofs/PegsAndGroups.shtml), Interactive Mathematics Miscellany and
Puzzles, retrieved 7 September 2018
White Pixels (24 October 2017), Peg Solitaire: Easy to remember symmetrical solution (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mc80DmGJgqQ&t=1s) (video),
Youtube
Play Multiple Versions of Peg Solitaire including English, European, Triangular, Hexagonal, Propeller, Minimum, 4Holes, 5Holes, Easy Pinwheel, Banzai7,
Megaphone, Owl, Star and Arrow at pegsolitaire.org (http://www.pegsolitaire.org)

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