The cross board has 33 holes. Fill all of them but the center, and it can be cleared down to one peg sitting right back in the middle. Step through the 31 jumps below. Holes are numbered row by row from the top.
The moves below use these numbers: row by row from the top, so the top arm is 1 to 3, the three wide rows run 7 to 27, and the center is hole 17. Every jump is straight across or straight up and down, never diagonal.
Start with every hole filled except 17. Thirty-two pegs, thirty-one jumps, and the last one lands in the middle.
If you lose your place, the board above the list on this page shows the same sequence one jump at a time, with the next peg marked.
Fill every hole but 17. Each jump is written as the peg that moves and the hole it lands in, so 5→17 means the peg in hole 5 jumps into hole 17. The peg in between is the one you take off.
One peg left in the center is a perfect board. Holes are numbered row by row from the top. golfteegames.com/cross-peg-solitaire-solution
Every solution is exactly thirty-one jumps long, since each jump removes one peg, so there is no short way through. What changes is how many pegs get stranded on the tips of the arms. The board has no diagonal moves, and the two outside corners of each arm, holes 1, 3, 7, 13, 21, 27, 31 and 33, can never be jumped at all. A peg in one of those has to jump out on its own, so it needs a neighbor and an empty hole past it. The sequence above works each arm before the pegs there run out of company.
If you count a chain of jumps made by one peg as a single move, the record is eighteen moves, found by Ernest Bergholt in 1912, and it was later proved that no shorter solution exists. The list above counts every jump on its own, which is easier to follow with real pegs in your hand.
One peg in the center is perfect. One peg anywhere is excellent. Two or three left is a good board. Four or more, set it up and go again.
Fill every hole except the center, then follow the 31 jumps on this page. Work one arm of the cross at a time, and don't leave a peg alone at the tip of an arm.
Thirty-one jumps, every time. You start with 32 pegs and each jump takes one away. If you count a run of jumps by the same peg as a single move, the shortest solution is 18 moves, and it has been proved that none is shorter.
Yes. It's the same game with marbles sitting in little dips instead of pegs in holes. If your board has 33 holes in a cross, the moves on this page work as written.
From the usual start, with only the center empty, there are five places the last peg can end: the center, hole 17, or the middle hole at the far end of an arm, which is 2, 14, 20 or 32. No other hole is possible.
That's the French board, with an extra hole in each inside corner of the cross. With only the center empty it can't be cleared down to one peg. That has been proved, so it isn't you.
Yes. The cheat sheet on this page prints on one sheet of paper, with the numbered board and all 31 jumps.
A wooden peg solitaire board makes a good coffee table game.Amazon link. As an Amazon Associate, Golf Tee Games earns from qualifying purchases, at no cost to you.