Peg Jump

Jump a peg over the one next to it and land on the empty space beyond; the peg you jumped is removed. Keep going until a single peg is left. Every jump is irreversible, so the order you take them in is the whole game.

It runs entirely on your device: 0 network requests, works offline. No ads, no account, nothing to buy, and no betting, money or prizes of any kind.

1. Focus the board — click it, or press Tab until it is focused.
2. Move with the arrow keys. The cursor is outlined, not just tinted.
3. Pick a peg up with Enter. It changes glyph to show it is held.
4. Press a direction to jump it that way. If the jump is not legal the cursor just moves instead, so nothing is ever lost by trying.
5. Watch the "available" count. It is the number of jumps still open to you — when it starts falling fast, you are heading for a dead end.

How do you win at peg solitaire?

Play towards the middle, not away from it. Pegs stranded on the edges are the ones that run out of partners first, so a jump that pulls a peg inward is almost always worth more than one that pushes it out. The other habit worth building is to keep pegs in clusters: a lone peg two squares from anything else can never be jumped and can never jump, so it decides the end of the game long before you reach it. When the available-jump count drops sharply after a move, that move probably isolated something — and this game generates every position backwards from a single peg, so if you are stuck, a winning line definitely existed.

Is every position actually winnable?

Yes, and it is proved rather than assumed. Positions are built by running the game backwards from a single peg: each step is the exact inverse of a legal jump, so the forward sequence that undoes them is always available. The test suite additionally searches every generated position exhaustively for a solution, so an unwinnable board cannot reach you.

Why does it show how many jumps are available?

Because the physical game makes you discover that you are stuck by inspecting the board, usually one move too late. Showing the count turns "I am stuck" from a surprise at the end into information you can act on several moves earlier — which is the part worth learning.

What is the board shape?

A five-by-five cross: the four single corners are off the board. It is small enough that a whole game is a couple of minutes and large enough that the order of your jumps genuinely matters.

Does it work offline?

Yes. Once the page has loaded once, the whole game is on your device — board, rules, everything. There is no server involved in play at any point.

Is there any money, betting or in-app purchase in this?

None, and there never will be. No currency, nothing to buy, no lives to refill, no wager of any kind.

Can I play it with a keyboard or a screen reader?

Both. Arrows move, Enter picks a peg up and a direction jumps it, and the board announces every square as peg, held or empty along with the jumps still available. Pegs and holes are different shapes — filled and ring — so nothing depends on telling hues apart.

A five-by-five cross with the corners removed, and positions built from five backward jumps, so a game starts with six pegs and needs five correct jumps to finish.

Slide Fifteen is the other board puzzle here — it also rewards looking one move past the obvious one, but nothing in it is irreversible.

Bookmark this page (Ctrl+D, or ⌘D on Mac) or install the app — it works offline the next time you need it.