How to Play Minesweeper
Minesweeper is played on a grid of hidden squares containing mines. Click a square to open it; the number it shows is how many of its eight neighbours are mined. Blank squares open their neighbours automatically. Flag the squares you deduce are mines, and win by opening every square that is not a mine.
The rules, step by step
- 1Open a squareClick or tap any square. The mines are placed after your first click, so it is always safe.
- 2Read the numbersA number is the count of mines in the eight adjacent squares. A blank square has none and opens its neighbours automatically.
- 3Flag the mines you deduceRight-click, or use the flag toggle. A second right-click marks the square as unsure, a third clears it.
- 4Chord to move quicklyDouble-click a number whose adjacent flags already equal it, and every other neighbour opens at once.
- 5Open every safe square to winThe mines do not need to be flagged. Opening the last safe square wins immediately.
Try it — the rules above, running
Your statistics · Beginner
- Played
- 0
- Won
- 0
- Win rate
- 0%
- Streak
- 0
- Best streak
- 0
- Best time
- —
This board
9 × 9 with 10 mines — 12.3% density. Almost always solvable by logic alone.
Keyboard
- Tab
- Move into the grid — one stop, not one per square
- Arrows
- Move between squares
- Home / End
- First or last square in the row
- Enter
- Open the square
- F
- Flag or unflag
- C
- Chord an open number
What do the controls do?
| Action | Mouse | Touch |
|---|---|---|
| Open a square | Left click | Tap |
| Flag a mine | Right click | Flag toggle, then tap |
| Mark as unsure | Right click twice | Flag toggle, tap twice |
| Chord | Double click a satisfied number | Double tap |
How do you read the standard patterns?
- 1-1 along a wall — the square past the second 1 is safe.
- 1-2-1 — mines sit under the 1s, the square under the 2 is safe.
- 1-2-2-1 — mines under the two 2s, safe under the 1s.
- A satisfied number — if the flags around a number equal it, every other neighbour is safe. Chord it.
What do you do when there is no safe move?
First check the global count: the number of mines left often resolves a border that local logic cannot. If it genuinely does not, pick the square with the lowest probability of being mined — usually one far from the constrained border, where the remaining mines are spread thinly. Minesweeper is provably not always solvable by logic alone, so this is part of correct play rather than a failure.
How do you win more often?
- Start in a corner, then work the edgesEdge squares have five neighbours and corners three, so the numbers there constrain far more tightly than a number in open space with eight unknowns.
- Learn the 1-2-1 and 1-2-2-1 patternsAlong a wall, a 1-2-1 always means mine-safe-mine under the two 1s and the 2. Recognising the handful of standard patterns removes most of the arithmetic.
- Count the whole border before guessingWhen local logic fails, the global mine count often decides it — if eleven mines remain and one region provably holds all eleven, everything else is safe.
- Guess where the loss costs leastIf you must guess, guess early and guess in a corner. A wrong guess after ten minutes of Expert costs far more than one on move three.
Common questions about minesweeper
- What is the minesweeper world record?
- Records are kept separately per board. Expert times in the low thirty-second range have stood at the top of the recognised rankings for years; Beginner is under one second.
- Why did my chord blow up?
- Chording trusts your flags. If one of the flags around that number was in the wrong place, the chord opens a real mine. It is not a safety feature.
Ready to stop reading? Play minesweeper on the full board, with statistics, deal numbers and unlimited undo.