coding clever program

Hi, i have written a program to give me a solution to the old board game solitaire, with the pegs in the grid.
the thing is at the moment it only plays like somebody with a blindfold on.
does anybody have any ideas on how to make programs 'cleverer' i have tried adding a few rules to its play but its not making much difference and i know i am missing the point of how to approach it, it needs to know whats a good situation and whats a bad situation etc..

any ideas much appreciated!

Well, first you need to search the web for a winning strategy, i.e. rules to follow to win the game. Then you need to formalize them in such a way that you can put them into code. Finally, you do just that.