Solitaire game box

Solitaire game box with print in place hinge

The game of Solitaire is most commonly played on a 33 point board in a cross shape with 32 pegs, marbles or pieces.

Preparation and Objective

The game is set up so that pieces fill every hole except the middle hole.

The objective is to remove every piece except one, with the final piece ending up in the centre hole.

Basic Play

The player makes successive capturing moves, removing a single piece each turn until is it impossible to make any more capturing moves.

Each turn, the player captures a piece by jumping over that piece orthogonally (not diagonally) from one adjacent point to the vacant adjacent point on the other side.

Therefore, the first turn can be made only by jumping a piece into the middle hole from one of 4 possible points.

Advanced Play

Once you have mastered the basic game, target a different hole as the hole that the final piece should finish in. You can also aim to get certain patterns of pieces left over.