How many pegs, marbles or pieces are on the board at the beginning of a board game of solitaire?

This game is said to have occurred in the middle of the 17th century, at the court of Louis XIV. This board game for one player is still played worldwide, including American, European and Asian countries.

At the beginning of the game the player is faced with a 33 point board in a cross shape with 32 pegs, marbles or pieces. These pieces fill every gap of the board except one - the middle one. The player's objective is to remove every token from board, leaving only one of them in the center hole. The pieces are removed by subsequent capturing moves: you can jump one piece over another (not diagonally) into 2 positions away, and this way the jumped piece will be removed.

This way, the first move is possible only for one of the 4 tokens, able to jump into the empty hole in the middle. After the first turn the player can be creative. The game is played until there are no possible capturing moves left.