All Change

Opening Positions for Four Different-Sized Puzzles

Alternate Names

This game/puzzle has been marketed and published for well over a century under numerous names including Insanity, Pawn's Move, and Leap Frog. Depending on how many counters are being used for the variation being played, the game has been called Six Men Solitaire, Eight Men Solitaire, etc.

No. of Players

One

Equipment

Any of the various boards used are all simple enough to be drawn on paper. They have, of course, been marketed and sold as peg puzzles manufactured from wood or plastic. An even number of black and white counters are required for any variation. Eight each of black and white counters should be sufficient for even the larger boards.

History

The simplicity of this puzzle is a likely indicator that it could be a very ancient game. Its origin is not known, but it was popular in the early 20th century.

Objective

The objective is always to move all counters of one color from one side of the board to the other. The objective can be made more complex by attempting to do this in a minimum number of moves, ultimately finding the minimum number of moves that are required to complete the puzzle. The game is lost if no more legal moves are available before the puzzle is completed.

Play

Set up one of the boards as shown above. Any specific counter moves in one direction only. The counters starting at the right side of the board always move to the left and vice versa. A counter may move, in its direction, to an adjacent empty cell or short jump over a counter of the opposing color to land at the necessarily vacant immediate next cell (short jump). Note that I have seen more than one printed version of this game's rules which allow for counters to jump other counters of their same color, but this rule should not be used. It is not necessary to jump a counter of the same color for any of the variations of this game in order to win.

Strategy

Never move two counters of the same color into an adjoining position until they reach their final stopping position, as counter cannot jump over two counters. Incomplete

Variations

Sources