Minesweeper
Minesweeper hides mines in a grid and tells you, on every square you open, how many of its eight neighbours are mined. Open every safe square to win. Your first click here is always safe and always opens a region — the mines are placed after you click, so no game is decided before it starts.
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
- Beginner
- 9 × 9, 10 mines
- Intermediate
- 16 × 16, 40 mines
- Expert
- 30 × 16, 99 mines
- First click
- Always safe
How do you play minesweeper?
Left-click — or tap — a square to open it. If it is a mine the game ends. If not, the number shown is how many of the eight squares around it contain mines; a blank square has none, so its neighbours open automatically and the board cascades. Right-click (or use the flag toggle on touch) to mark a square you have deduced is a mine. You win by opening every square that is not a mine. Flagging is optional and never required.
What is chording, and why does it matter?
Click a number whose flag count already equals it and every remaining hidden neighbour opens at once. That is chording, and it is where essentially all speed in minesweeper comes from — a chord replaces up to eight separate clicks. On this board, double-click a satisfied number to chord it. It will happily detonate a flag you placed in the wrong square, so the technique is only as safe as your deductions.
Which minesweeper board should you play?
| Board | Size | Mines | Density |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beginner | 9 × 9 | 10 | 12.3% |
| Intermediate | 16 × 16 | 40 | 15.6% |
| Expert | 30 × 16 | 99 | 20.6% |
Expert is the board every record is set on, and its 20.6% density is what makes it hard — dense enough that logic frequently runs out and you have to take a considered guess. A custom board is available up to 40 × 40 if you want something else.
Is minesweeper always solvable by logic?
No, and this is a genuinely deep fact about the game. Richard Kaye proved in 2000 that the minesweeper consistency problem is NP-complete — deciding whether a given board configuration is even possible is as hard as any problem in NP. In practice this shows up as the 50/50: two squares, one mine, no information anywhere on the board that can separate them. Expert boards produce these regularly. Guessing well is part of the skill.
How do you get better at minesweeper?
- 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.
Minesweeper questions people ask
- Can the first click in minesweeper be a mine?
- Not here. The mines are placed after your first click, excluding that square and all eight of its neighbours, so the opening move always cascades into a region.
- Do you have to flag every mine to win minesweeper?
- No. You win by opening every safe square. Flags are a bookkeeping aid — they let you chord, and they stop you clicking a square you have already worked out.
- What do the numbers mean in minesweeper?
- The number of mines in the eight squares touching that one, including diagonals. A 1 has exactly one mined neighbour; a blank has none.
- How do you play minesweeper on a phone?
- Tap to open. Switch the flag toggle on to place flags by tapping instead, or long-press a square. The board scales down and scrolls inside its own frame rather than squashing the grid.
The rules in six lines
- 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.
The long version, with worked examples and the questions beginners actually ask, is on how to play minesweeper.
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