Marble solitaire has many variations, but the English version features 32 marbles on a board with 33 holes arranged in the shape of a plus sign. More of a puzzle than a game, marble solitaire challenges you to reduce the number of marbles to just one. Jump one marble over another into an adjacent empty space and remove the jumped-over marble from the board. Marble solitaire, sometimes called peg solitaire, has a number of possible solutions, but all of the strategies involve bringing the marbles from the outer edges of the board in toward the center.
Place the marbles in the holes on the board, leaving only the center hole empty. Imagine that the holes are numbered from 1 to 33, going from left to right and from top to bottom.
Jump the marble from Hole 5 to Hole 17 and remove the marble from Hole 10. Jump the marble from Hole 8 to Hole 10 and remove the marble from Hole 9.
Jump the marble from Hole 1 to Hole 9 and remove the marble from Hole 4. Jump the marble from Hole 16 to Hole 4 and remove the marble from Hole 9.
Make two jumps with the marble from Hole 3, going to Hole 1 and then Hole 9, removing the marbles from Hole 2 and Hole 4.
Jump the marble from Hole 28 to Hole 16 and remove the marble from Hole 23. Jump the marble from Hole 21 to Hole 23 and remove the marble from Hole 22.
Jump the marble from Hole 24 to Hole 22 and remove the marble from Hole 23. Make two jumps with the marble from Hole 7, going to Hole 21 and then Hole 23, removing the marbles from Hole 14 and Hole 22.
Jump the marble from Hole 26 to Hole 24 and remove the marble from Hole 25. Jump the marble from Hole 33 to Hole 25 and remove the marble from Hole 30. Jump the marble from Hole 18 to Hole 30 and remove the marble from Hole 25.
Make two jumps with the marble from Hole 31, going to Hole 33 and then 25, removing the marbles from Hole 32 and Hole 30.
Jump the marble from Hole 6 to Hole 18 and remove the marble from Hole 11. Jump the marble from Hole 13 to Hole 11 and remove the marble from Hole 12. Jump the marble from Hole 10 to Hole 12 and remove the marble from Hole 11.
Make two jumps with the marble from Hole 27, going to Hole 13 and then Hole 11, removing the marbles from Hole 20 and Hole 12.
Make six consecutive jumps with the marble from Hole 24, going to Hole 22, Hole 8, Hole 10, Hole 12, Hole 26 and back to Hole 24, removing the marbles from Hole 23, Hole 15, Hole 9, Hole 11, Hole 19 and Hole 25.
Jump the marble from Hole 17 to Hole 19 and remove the marble from Hole 18. Jump the marble from Hole 29 to Hole 17 and remove the marble from Hole 24.
Jump the marble from Hole 16 to Hole 18 and remove the marble from Hole 17. Jump the marble from Hole 19 to Hole 17 and remove the marble from Hole 18, leaving just one marble remaining in the center of the board.
References
Writer Bio
Andrea Reuter has a Bachelor of Arts in liberal arts from the New School. She has worked as a magazine writer and editor for such publications as "Diversion" magazine and "Original Logic Problems." Reuter currently writes articles about video games and consoles, board games and card games for various websites.
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