Keep a way into the center before you chase another capture. A peg left alone at the end of an arm, and a peg sitting in the center too early, are the two dead ends that show up most. The notes below sit next to hint, undo, and replay on the home page. They are not an opening to recite. What counts as legal is on the rules page.
Count the roads before you take the peg
Two or three jumps are often legal at once. Skip the one that merely feels smooth. After the capture, ask whether anything can still reach the ring around the center, and whether an arm is about to be left with a peg that has no neighbor.
That stranded peg is the expensive one. It cannot jump, and if nothing else can reach it, it stays until the end and the classic finish is gone. Bringing it back toward pegs that still touch each other beats a capture that parks it on the tip of an arm.
The center is the last stop, not a prize for move one
Jumping into the center at the start is tempting because the hole is already empty. The peg that lands there usually has to leave again. If it sits, it blocks the peg that was supposed to finish there. Solved means the final peg, not the first one.
In the middle game, if every hole around the center is either full with no jump out or empty with no peg two steps away, the line is probably dead. Replay until you see the jump where the count was still falling but the center had already closed. Change that shape next time, not the last helpless tap.
Two middle-game shapes
One is still alive: two pegs together on the outer arm, empty hole one step inward. Jump the outer peg in. You remove one peg, the tip of the arm clears, and the survivor sits closer to the middle. That is usually the jump you want.
The other also lowers the count. You spend the last entrance to the center in order to pick off a peg in a corner. The sidebar looks better for a moment. After that, the remaining jumps circle the outside, and you finish stuck with four or five. On replay the turn that mattered is the one that bought the lower number, not the turn when the board finally froze.
Use a hint to compare, not to take the seat
Name two candidate jumps and say, out loud if you need to, whether the center is still reachable after each. Then ask for a hint and see which one it picks. A deeper level waits longer and is less likely to offer a random legal jump. It is still one jump. Decline it. Undo puts you back on the fork.
If the hint and your first instinct never agree, drop a level, watch the shorter search, then go back up. Deeper is not a second puzzle key. Following every suggestion will hand you a solve or a dead board, and you still will not know which jump did it.
Practice so the loss has an address
Play a full game at one hint depth. At the end, read the pegs left, then replay and mark two moments: the jump after which the count stopped falling, and the first jump after which nothing could enter the center. Next game, change only that moment. Change five things and you will not know which edit mattered.
If four undos still show the same corpse of a position, start a new game. Asking for hints on a board with no jump only repeats that there is no jump.
Questions
Is there a first move I am supposed to memorize?
No, and this site does not badge one. Plenty of lines reach the center. The first click people want — sliding the peg that already touches the empty center — is not even legal, because there is nothing to jump. Confirm the jump exists before you argue about whether it is pretty.
I am stuck with a crowd of pegs left. Is the puzzle impossible?
The opening has solutions. The branch you are on may not. Undo until more than one landing hole is available, and pick a jump that does not abandon a peg on an arm. If you are back near the start and keep rebuilding the same dead shape, a new game is faster than tapping the same hole.
Why do I keep finishing with three or four pegs?
Usually each of those pegs sits apart from the others, with empty holes between them, and the center is already shut. On replay, look for the jump that left a single peg on the tip of an arm. Next time, bring that arm inward before you clear a denser clump somewhere else.
The hint is slow. Is it broken?
A deeper level searches further. The top bar shows that the search is running, then the board accepts clicks again. Undo or New during that wait throws the result away, so it cannot land on a board you have already left. If the bar never clears and the wood will not take a tap, reload. A reload is a fresh opening.
Do I need the whole solution by heart?
Classic lines exist. Two habits travel further than a memorized tape: do not strand a peg, and do not close the center early. With those, plus undo against a hint, you can use the idea in a position you have not seen. A tape only works while you are still on the tape.
What should two people compare?
Pegs left at the end. A solve is one peg in the center. There is no shared room on this site. Each person plays the same opening in a browser and uses replay to see where the lines split. Do not compare counts if the hint depths were different.
