Peg solitaire
Solitaire (also Solitaire, plug or Solo Halma, Springer, jumper, nuns game, Hermit Game ) is a board game for one person. The most widespread game is cross-shaped and starts with 32 stones to 33 fields. It is also known as English solitaire (picture).
Since at least in the USA, the card game Patience solitaire is, called the board game in English rather Peg Solitaire or Sailor's Solitaire in the United States after a well-known brand with true Hi -Q.
- 4.1 Note on the term " train "
History
That the game was first known in France, is secured. It first appeared in 1687 on a Portrait of Claude- Auguste Berey and was played with security at the court of the Sun King. In England it was first mentioned in 1746.
The story of the " French nobles in prison," comes from an English book from 1801, as John Beasley in 1985 in the only reference book on the topic, The Ins and Outs of Peg Solitaire, holds. Beasley recalls this story into the realm of " ineradicable Fables ", with correspondingly little success. Also, that it might have been invented overseas, is neither exclude nor verifiable. The English name Sailor's solitaire might suggest this.
In Switzerland, this board game is called " Game Amdener Tubbeli " widely known as. Amden is a village on Lake Walen. Craftsmen in Amden provide such games ago.
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz appreciated the game and mentioned in 1710 in a letter that he had found for his own version.
One of the oldest printed edition game boards is cruciform, has 45 fields and is from JC Wiegleb, , 1779.
Regulate
It's about per jump to drop a piece exactly one lying next to skip, which is thereby "deleted". Stones may only be in rows and columns, but not jump diagonally. Only one stone shall be left, and this at a given place, usually in the middle board.
The game can also be played by two, although this is hardly practiced. The opponents take turns. Losers, who can no longer jump.
Brett variants
A variety of board shapes occur: In addition to the common fully symmetric "English" solitaire ( 4), and the original form, the " French " solitaire ( 1), there are different crosses, such as the German Wiegleb board with 45 fields from 1779 ( 2), crosses with different length arms ( 3-3-2-2 ) (3), squares, such as the Diamond with 41 fields (5 ), 6 × 6 and 8 × 8 boards ( that's not a midfielder may have ), 9 × 9 boards, triangle versions (most common with 15 fields, 6), and several more - played star-like arrangements were.
Especially developed for his research George Bell new special shapes such as diamonds, the mushroom-shaped mushroom board with 36 fields, and similar, with 75 and 90 fields.
The English Standard Board (33 fields, Figure 4)
- The standard game is to occupy on a 33er board all fields except with stones. The beginning of the game free field and the target are usually in the middle (d4 → d4).
- The game on this board, however, is releasable from each constellation Start with an empty field.
The French board (37 fields, Figure 1)
- The task d4 → d4, " Free space ... middle, last stone ... center " is in the 37er board demonstrably not solvable, strongly suggesting that this game originally also allowed diagonal trains (which also makes this task solvable ). In today's conventional trains two stones remain when you start the game with only the middle was free.
- Only three start - constellations (and their rotated and / or mirrored counterparts ) are playable on this board at all up to a single rest stone, namely the free space on c1 or d3 or d6.
- Literature on the elderly, by the way European referred to in France, Brett is much more sparse than the 33er.
Other versions of the game
- In some variants should be generated from different starting configurations specific target configurations, it is about a "pyramid" or "cross" reduce or create.
- The special way of playing by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was to " jump " instead of the stones to make the "holes".
- Furthermore, the goal of symmetrical end positions can be a criterion for the game.
Computer programs
Solutions can be found with the help of computer programs. A suitable method is basically good " recursive backtracking ". If all the options systematically tried, then so can also check whether there is a solution from a given starting position for a given end position. Since, due to the special nature of the jumps is only a small part of the stones ever be able to reach the last stone the target field ( in the English Standard Version of this are, for example, only 4 stones), the search can be sped up by a multiple, by by each jump is checked whether the relevant stones are still in the game. This is not the case, the current sequence can be aborted.
Since there usually are a variety of solutions to the same problem, the final challenge is to find the solution with the fewest " trains " (which means that the same piece must jump several times in immediate succession ). The proven shortest possible solution to the standard game on the 33er board, d4 → d4, was found in 1912 by game guru Ernest Bergholt: 18 " trains " (numbered from top left: 15-17, 28-16, 21-23, 24-22, 26-24, 33-25, 18-30, 31-33-25, 09-23, 01-09, 06-18-30-28-16-04, 07-21-23-25 , 13-11, 10-12, 27-13-11, 03-01-09, 08-10-12-26-24-10, 05-17 ).
The currently optimal programs for the solution of Solitaire ( game ) tasks were presented from 2003 by Jean -Charles Meyrignac and George Bell. Meyrignac alone for the starting constellation " Free field = c1 " is calculated on the 37er board 280 different solutions ( and this proved that this task is only 20 " trains " requires ).
Note the term " train "
While it would be useful, such as Jürgen Koller it does, with " train " only to describe what one could also train series or call similar, and the " single pull" always to name just a jump, the general parlance, but different ( one thinks of Chess and other board games ). In this article, only " train " means in quotes more immediately consecutive jumps with the same stone. Mountain Holts 18 " trains " are naturally made 31 jumps, Meyrignacs 20 " trains " of 35 jumps.