The History of Solitaire: The Board Game

Picture the court of Louis XIV. The candlelight, the silk, the murmur of intrigue at Versailles. And there, at a small table, a noblewoman sits entirely alone with a wooden board pitted with holes, moving small pegs one over another in total concentration. No opponent. No cards. Just her, the board, and a puzzle she is determined to finish with a single peg standing.

That woman was Princess Anne de Rohan-Chabot, the Princesse de Soubise, and the moment was captured in a 1697 engraving by Claude-Auguste Berey. It is the earliest firm evidence we have of peg solitaire — the quiet, single-player board game that has outlasted empires, fashions and almost every game invented alongside it.

One point of confusion to clear up immediately: this is not the card game. When most people today say "solitaire" they mean Klondike, the patience card game built into every computer. The game in this story is the older one — a physical board of holes and pegs (or marbles), played with the hand and the eye, not a deck. They share a name and a solitary spirit, and nothing else.

The 1697 court of Louis XIV and the Berey engraving

The story of peg solitaire begins not in a workshop but in a portrait. In 1697 the French engraver Claude-Auguste Berey produced an image of the Princesse de Soubise seated at a peg board, mid-game. That engraving, dated 1697, is the oldest solid proof historians have that the game was being played — and crucially, that it was being played by the highest tier of French aristocracy.

That detail matters. The board game was a fashionable diversion at the court of Louis XIV, the sort of refined pastime a princess could be depicted enjoying without any loss of dignity. It was a game of patience and intellect, not of chance or gambling, which gave it a certain respectability among nobles who had time, leisure and a taste for elegant problems.

A persistent legend claims the game was invented by a French nobleman imprisoned in the Bastille, who carved a board to pass the empty hours. It is a wonderful story and entirely unverified — no record supports it. What we can say with confidence is that by 1697 the game was established enough to be worth immortalising in art.

From the French court the game spread across Europe under several names — solitaire in France, later "the game of patience" elsewhere. Like many of the classic games we still play today, including those traced in our look at the oldest games company in the world, its appeal travelled far beyond the room it started in.

Leibniz and why mathematicians fell for it

In 1716 one of the towering minds of the age turned his attention to this little board. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz — co-inventor of calculus, philosopher, polymath — wrote about peg solitaire, noting it as a puzzle genuinely worthy of mathematical study. When a mind of that calibre takes a parlour game seriously, the game has something real in it.

What caught Leibniz, and generations of mathematicians since, is that the rules are trivial but the consequences are deep. The whole game is one move repeated: a peg jumps over a single adjacent peg — horizontally or vertically, never diagonally — landing in an empty hole directly beyond it, and the jumped peg is removed from the board.

From that one rule grows a surprisingly hard problem. Each jump removes exactly one peg, so a board that starts with one hole empty must be reduced, jump by jump, to a single survivor. The question of which positions can be solved, and which are mathematically impossible, has occupied serious study for three centuries.

It is the same quality that makes chess and draughts endure: simple to learn in a minute, impossible to exhaust in a lifetime. That depth-beneath-simplicity is why solitaire still sits comfortably alongside the strategy games in our board games collection rather than being filed away as a relic.

The two boards: English 33-hole vs European 37-hole

There is no single solitaire board — there are two, and the difference is worth knowing before you buy one. The English board has 33 holes arranged in a cross, or plus, shape: a three-by-three centre with arms of three holes extending in each direction. It is the board most British players picture and the one most commonly produced here.

The European (or French) board has 37 holes. It takes the same cross and adds four extra holes, one tucked into each inner corner, giving a fuller, rounder outline. Those four holes change the game completely from a mathematical point of view.

The classic challenge on both is the same in spirit: start with every hole filled but one — usually the centre — and reduce the board to a single peg, ideally finishing in that centre hole. On the 33-hole English board this elegant centre-to-centre solution exists and takes 32 jumps. On the 37-hole European board, the central single-peg finish is famously impossible to reach from a central start, which is exactly the kind of result that delighted Leibniz's successors.

For a beginner, the English 33-hole board is the friendlier place to start. It is the standard you will find across our traditional games range, sized for an adult hand and a quiet afternoon.

Jaques of London and the wooden solitaire board

Jaques of London has been making fine games since 1795, which makes us the world's oldest games maker — old enough that we were turning wooden games on the lathe while peg solitaire was still a fashionable court pastime within living memory. A solitaire board sits naturally in that lineage: a classic parlour and strategy game, made to be handled and kept.

Our solitaire boards are turned from solid timber, not pressed board or plastic. Like everything in our wooden range they are made from FSC-certified timber, finished with non-toxic water-based treatments, and independently tested to UKCA and CE standards. A good solitaire board should feel like furniture, because in a great many homes that is exactly what it becomes — left out on a side table, picked up between other things.

The pegs (or marbles) seat with a satisfying weight, and the board itself ages well, taking on the patina of a piece that is used rather than displayed. That permanence is the point. This is not a game you play once and box away; it is one you return to for years.

It belongs to the same family of enduring wooden classics we have always made, the kind catalogued across our full board games collection — games chosen to last a generation, not a season.

Why a 300-year-old solo game still matters

We are surrounded by games designed to be played against other people, against the clock, or against an algorithm. Solitaire asks for none of that. It is one player, one board, and a problem that only you can solve — which is precisely why it has quietly outlasted nearly everything launched alongside it.

There is a particular kind of calm in it. The hands are busy, the eyes are working a few moves ahead, and the phone stays in the other room. It is screen-free focus in its oldest form: a small, finite puzzle that absorbs attention completely without ever demanding it. Many people keep a board out for exactly this reason — a five-minute reset between tasks.

It is also genuinely good mental exercise. Planning a sequence of jumps, holding the board in your head, working backwards from the finish — this is light, pleasant strategic thinking, the same muscle a good game of draughts or backgammon exercises. Our note on the history of backgammon makes a similar case for the staying power of a great two-player classic.

If you want one to keep, the centrepiece is our 15-inch grand mahogany set — a board substantial enough to live on a table rather than in a drawer. There is also a more affordable marble version for those who simply want to start playing.

Frequently Asked Questions About Solitaire the Board Game

What is the aim of solitaire the board game?

The aim of peg solitaire is to clear the board down to a single peg. You begin with every hole on the board filled except one, then remove pegs by jumping. Each jump takes one peg over an adjacent peg into an empty hole beyond it, and the peg you jumped over is taken off the board. A perfect game ends with just one peg remaining, ideally resting in the centre hole. On the standard 33-hole English board this elegant centre finish is achievable; it is the puzzle players return to again and again.

How do you play peg solitaire?

Set up the board with all holes filled except one, usually the centre. On your turn, choose a peg that sits directly next to another peg, with an empty hole immediately beyond that second peg in the same line. Jump the first peg over the second, horizontally or vertically only, landing in the empty hole, then remove the peg you jumped. Diagonal moves are never allowed. Keep jumping until no legal moves remain. The fewer pegs you leave behind, the better you have played; one peg is the classic win.

How many pegs are on a solitaire board?

It depends on the board. The standard English board has 33 holes, so a full setup holds 32 pegs with one hole left empty to begin. The European or French board has 37 holes and therefore starts with 36 pegs and one empty hole. In both cases you always leave exactly one hole open at the start, because the entire game works by jumping into empty space. As you play, the number of pegs only ever falls, since every jump removes one.

What is the difference between the English and European solitaire board?

The English board has 33 holes arranged in a clean cross, or plus, shape with a three-by-three centre and arms of three holes in each direction. The European board has 37 holes: it is the same cross with four extra holes added, one in each inner corner, giving a rounder outline. The difference is more than cosmetic. The classic centre-start, centre-finish single-peg solution is possible on the 33-hole English board but mathematically impossible on the 37-hole European board, which is why the English version is the more popular puzzle.

Who invented solitaire?

No single inventor is recorded. The earliest firm evidence of peg solitaire is a 1697 engraving by Claude-Auguste Berey showing Princess Anne de Rohan-Chabot, the Princesse de Soubise, playing it at the French court of Louis XIV. A popular legend credits a nobleman imprisoned in the Bastille, but no record supports it. What is documented is that the game was an established court pastime by the late seventeenth century, and that the mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz wrote about it in 1716, marking it as a serious puzzle.

Can you always win solitaire the board game?

No, and that is part of its appeal. Whether you can reduce the board to a single peg depends entirely on where you make your jumps, and a careless sequence will leave you stranded with several pegs and no legal moves. On the 33-hole English board a perfect centre-to-centre solution does exist and takes 32 jumps, but finding it requires planning. On the 37-hole European board the central single-peg finish from a central start is actually impossible, proven mathematically, so the board you choose changes what winning even means.

Is peg solitaire the same as card solitaire?

No, they are entirely different games that happen to share a name. Peg solitaire is a physical board game with holes and pegs (or marbles), played by jumping pieces to clear the board, and it dates to at least 1697. Card solitaire — the patience family that includes Klondike, the version built into computers — uses a deck of playing cards and is about sorting them into ordered sequences. Both are designed for one player, which is where the shared name comes from, but the equipment, the rules and the history are completely separate.

Is solitaire good for your brain?

Peg solitaire is a genuine light strategy exercise. To play well you plan a sequence of jumps in advance, hold the changing layout of the board in your mind, and often work backwards from the single-peg finish you are aiming for. That is the same kind of forward-planning and spatial reasoning that games like draughts and backgammon encourage. It is also calming and completely screen-free, which makes it a popular way to focus the mind for a few minutes between other tasks without the stimulation of a phone.

How long does a game of solitaire take to play?

A single game is short — often five to fifteen minutes depending on how carefully you plan each jump. That brevity is a large part of why people keep a board out on a side table; it suits a quick mental reset rather than a long sitting. The depth comes from repetition. Because the same starting position can be solved many different ways, and the perfect single-peg finish is genuinely hard to reach, players return to it repeatedly, treating each game as a fresh puzzle rather than a one-off.

What is solitaire played with — pegs or marbles?

Both are traditional, and the choice is mostly down to the board. Wooden boards typically use small wooden or plastic pegs that seat into drilled holes, while many decorative boards use glass or stone marbles resting in shallow dimples. The rules are identical either way. Jaques of London makes both styles, including a 15-inch grand mahogany peg set and a more affordable marble version, so the decision comes down to the feel you prefer and how the board will look in your home.