Peg Solitaire - play and win with this free Windows app

Peg Solitaire is a game that is traditionally played on a wooden board that has a pattern of holes drilled, each of which can contain a peg. The rules of the game are very simple: you make moves by jumping a peg over an adjacent peg, much like in checkers, except that the moves must be horizontal or vertical. The peg jumped over is removed. The aim of the game is to remove all the pegs except the last, which should be left in the center of the board.

When I played this game as a child, I could never manage to win, and I even began to suspect it was not possible! I wrote this program to find out if it was possible, and also to find out just how easy it is to win. This program does this by providing an option to show all the moves that will allow you to reach the winning position, from any point in the game.

How Peg Solitaire shows the winning moves

This image shows a game of peg solitaire in progress. The option to show the winning moves is turned on, so the pegs glow to show which ones to move.

Peg Solitaire Screen Shot

Pegs glowing yellow can be moved to reach the winning position.
The mouse has been moved over the center peg in this screenshot, so the possible holes to which it can be moved are also glowing. The hole that is glowing green is a move that leads to the winning position. However, moving the peg to the hole glowing blue will mean the winning position can no longer be reached.
Pegs glowing purple can be moved, but if any of these are moved the winning position will not be reachable.
Pegs not glowing cannot be moved.

Peg Solitaire - play and win!

How Peg Solitaire shows the winning moves