The essential matchstick equation toolbox :)

Made by Narve. Comments and feedback welcome on the GitHub project page.

If you just want to solve Matchstick Puzzles, try this Puzzle Set!

If you have a puzzle you want to solve, enter your puzzle in the input box, and any solutions will be found. Click on any sample to show it and its solution.

If you want to create a new puzzle, you can enter a correct equation, e.g. 1+5=6, then possible puzzles (simple mutations) will be displayed.

Ruleset

Confused? Have a look at the Rules section below to see which moves are legal.

Some sample problems:

Rules

A single match may be moved — either within a character (a re-shaping of the same number of sticks, see the Move column) or from one character to another (see the Add and Remove columns: every match leaving a position via Remove must arrive somewhere via Add).