This mirror image notation is used, amongst other reasons, since on the European board, one set of alternative games is to start with a hole at some position and to end with a single peg in its mirrored position. There are many different solutions to the standard problem, and one notation used to describe them assigns letters to the holes (although numbers may also be used): On an English board, the first three moves might be:

Thus valid moves in each of the four orthogonal directions are: A blue ¤ is the hole the current peg moved from a red * is the final position of that peg, a red o is the hole of the peg that was jumped and removed. indicates a peg in a hole, * emboldened indicates the peg to be moved, and o indicates an empty hole.Play Playing Peg solitaire Man playing triangular peg solitaireĪ valid move is to jump a peg orthogonally over an adjacent peg into a hole two positions away and then to remove the jumped peg. There are two traditional boards ('.' as an initial peg, 'o' as an initial hole): The objective is, making valid moves, to empty the entire board except for a solitary peg in the central hole. The standard game fills the entire board with pegs except for the central hole. This is the first known reference to the game in print. The August 1697 edition of the French literary magazine Mercure galant contains a description of the board, rules and sample problems. The first evidence of the game can be traced back to the court of Louis XIV, and the specific date of 1697, with an engraving made ten years later by Claude Auguste Berey of Anne de Rohan-Chabot, Princess of Soubise, with the puzzle by her side. The game is known as solitaire in Britain and as peg solitaire in the US where 'solitaire' is now the common name for patience. Some sets use marbles in a board with indentations. Peg Solitaire, Solo Noble, Solo Goli, Marble Solitaire or simply Solitaire is a board game for one player involving movement of pegs on a board with holes. Play continues until every mib has been knocked out of the circle.Board game for one player The Princess of Soubise playing solitaire, 1697 If a player knocks their opponent's marble out of the circle, they get all of the mibs their opponent has collected so far. After the first player's turn, the other player or team goes next. If a player's marble lands in the circle but doesn't knock out a mib, their turn is over and their marble stays where it is until their next turn.

A player can continue shooting until they either don't knock out a mib or they knock out a mib but their marble exits the circle. If they strike a mib and knock it out of the circle, and their marble stays inside of the circle, they win the mib they knocked out and take another shot from inside of the circle wherever their marble landed.

On a player's turn, they kneel outside of the circle and flick their marble into it using their thumb. Place 13 marbles in a cross-shape at the center of the circle these are the “mibs” for the game. You can draw a circle in dirt, make a circle using string, or draw a chalk circle on a sidewalk. To set up the game, make a circle on the ground that’s about 3 feet (1-2 meters) in diameter. The goal of the game is to collect the most marbles (called “mibs”) by knocking them out of the play area. Marbles is a classic game traditionally played with two teams of six players, although you can also play one-on-one.

Chinese solitaire marbles rules