Pegs / Peg Solitaire
Why is a jump rejected in Peg Solitaire?
Jump over exactly one adjacent peg horizontally or vertically into an empty playable hole two positions away. The jumped peg is removed. A blank part of the board without a hole is not a valid landing place.
Worked example
The pattern peg–peg–empty hole permits a jump. Peg–empty hole–empty hole does not: there is no peg to jump over.
What to check on your board
Apply the rule above to your current board, then verify the remaining puzzle constraints. The example explains a local deduction; it is not a solution to every randomly generated board.
Checking your next move
Check the starting peg, jumped peg and landing hole as a three-position line. The landing position must be a real empty hole, not background outside the board. After a jump, remove the middle peg before looking for the next legal move.
Using this reference
For Pegs / Peg Solitaire, read the rule and the worked example together before opening the game. Separate what the rule explicitly requires from what only seems likely on the current board. A useful next move is one you can explain from the visible constraints, not merely a pattern that looks familiar.
If you get stuck, isolate a smaller part of the position and list what is still possible there. After a move, check the affected rows, regions or connections again. The reference explains the documented rules; progress, controls and save behavior belong to the linked game.
Read the developer’s manual ↗ · Open the developer’s browser version ↗
Manual inspected: · Simon Tatham & contributors · MIT