Play Peg solitaire (Pegs) online Works — plays right here, unlimited puzzles
Guide updated October 2026 · Runs via WebAssembly (native port)
Peg solitaire is one of the oldest one-player board puzzles. Pegs fill a board of holes with one or more gaps. Each move jumps a peg over a neighbour into an empty hole, and the jumped peg is removed. The goal is to clear the board down to a single peg. The puzzle is ready below, on a cross-shaped board; the traditional English and French boards are on the Type menu.
Controls — what does what
| Action | Keyboard | Mouse / touch |
|---|---|---|
| Jump a peg | Arrows to the peg, Enter, then an arrow for the direction | Drag the peg two holes into an empty hole |
| Move the cursor | Arrow keys | - |
| Undo / redo | U or Ctrl+Z / R or Ctrl+R | Game menu |
| New puzzle | N | Game menu, New game |
FREE This is the complete game, free. Open source under the MIT licence: the complete puzzle, with a new grid every time.
Pegs is from Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle Collection, © Simon Tatham and contributors, used under the MIT licence. Built from source by scripts/build-puzzles.mjs.
How to play
- A move jumps one peg over an adjacent peg, horizontally or vertically, into an empty hole directly beyond it.
- The peg that was jumped over is removed.
- Diagonal jumps are not allowed.
- You win when only one peg remains.
Spaces with neither a peg nor a hole are obstacles and cannot be used.
Sizes and difficulty
The Type menu offers cross-shaped boards at 5x7, 7x7, 5x9, 7x9 and 9x9, the Octagon board, and random boards at 5x5, 7x7 and 9x9. The 7x7 Cross is the traditional English board with 33 holes; the Octagon is the traditional French board. Random boards are generated fresh each time but are always known to be solvable.
Solving tips
Clear the arms of the cross in tidy blocks rather than scattering moves: a block of three pegs in a line next to a gap can be removed with a standard set of moves. Avoid stranding single pegs in corners or at the tips of the arms, because nothing can jump them from there. Work from the outside in and leave the centre crowded until late. Undo is unlimited, so you can back up from a dead end.
Where this puzzle comes from
Pegs is part of Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle Collection, a set of about forty logic puzzles written by Simon Tatham and contributors and released under the MIT licence. Every grid is generated on the spot, so the supply never runs out, and for the grid-logic puzzles the generator makes sure each has exactly one solution, reachable by reasoning rather than guessing. The version here is the collection's own code compiled to WebAssembly; the Game menu can save a puzzle to a file and load it again, and the Type menu changes the size and difficulty.
Frequently asked questions
Which board is the classic one?
The 7x7 Cross is the English board, with 33 holes and the centre empty at the start. The Octagon is the French board with 37 holes; it cannot be solved from a centre start, so the game leaves a different hole empty.
Does the last peg have to finish in the centre?
No. In this version you win as soon as one peg is left anywhere. Ending in the centre on the English board is a traditional extra goal you can set yourself.
Is Peg solitaire free to play here?
Yes, with no limit on the number of puzzles. Pegs is open-source software under the MIT licence, and every grid is generated fresh when you press New game.
Does it work on a phone or tablet?
Yes. A tap works as a click and the puzzle resizes to fit the screen. Puzzles whose controls use the right mouse button are easier with a mouse.
More you can play in your browser
Related guides
- Solitaire (Klondike)The Klondike Solitaire you know, in your browser — draw 1 or 3, Standard and Vegas scoring
- Fifteen puzzle (Fifteen)Play the 15 puzzle free in your browser: slide numbered tiles into order with the gap bott
- Sliding row puzzle (Sixteen)Play Sixteen free online: shift whole rows and columns, wrapping tiles round the edges,…
- Sliding ball gem puzzle (Inertia)Play Inertia free online: steer a ball that slides until it hits a wall or stop square,…
Want a game like this on your own site?
Peg solitaire (Pegs) isn't ours to give away — we host it, we didn't write it. But eleven of the games here we did write from scratch, and those are free for anyone to put on their own page: one line of HTML, no account, no permission, no attribution beyond a credit line.