The 41-hole diamond has rows of 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 7, 5, 3, 1. Empty d2 and finish at f2 in 39 jumps. Do not confuse it with the 32-hole diamond. Starting and finishing in the centre is impossible.
The diamond, a long road through the middle
This is the board that looks like a gem: 41 holes laid out in rows of 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 7, 5, 3 and 1, forty marbles, and a single empty hole near the top.
There is no tidy central opening here. Empty the centre and the puzzle cannot be finished, so the board asks you to start off to one side, at d2, and travel all the way across to f2. The two holes sit on the same row, close together, with 39 jumps in between.
It is a patient board. Nothing about it is hard to understand, and a great deal of it is easy to lose track of.
How to play the diamond
The diamond has 41 holes. The empty hole starts at d2 and only two first jumps exist: f2 over e2, or d4 over d3, both landing on d2.
- Each jump needs two neighbouring marbles in a straight line and an empty hole immediately beyond them. The jumped marble is removed; every jump reduces the count by one.
- On square grids, jump horizontally or vertically. On the triangle, use any of the six directions parallel to its three sides. A diagonal on a square grid is never legal.
- The marked hole is the required finish. One marble somewhere else is a different result, not a win in this target puzzle. You can undo a jump and explore a different route.
- Our counter records individual jumps. Mathematical books sometimes group several jumps by the same marble into one “move”; those totals are not comparable.
Click or tap a marble. If only one jump is possible it happens at once; if there are several, outlined holes show where the marble can land and you pick one. You can also drag a marble onto a hole, or use the keyboard: arrow keys to move, Enter or Space to select and jump, Escape to clear, Ctrl or Cmd with Z to undo.
How to win the diamond
Forty marbles means 39 jumps. The target ring is on f2. The win is the last marble on that hole; any other single marble is So close.
The diamond solution
The Solutions page replays one verified route of 39 jumps from d2 to f2. It is one of many.
Questions people ask
Is this the same as the 32-hole diamond?
No. This one has 41 holes. The 32-hole diamond is a different board and its solutions do not carry over.
Is there a solver for the Diamond?
There is no box where you type a position in, but the game has a solver of its own. The Hint button shows a jump from a route the game has checked can still win. If the search proves the target can no longer be reached, the game says so, which tells you to undo; if it reaches its search limit, the answer is simply unknown. A hint is marked in your result and keeps that game out of your best time.
