Guide
How to Play Minesweeper
Minesweeper is a logic puzzle about reading numbers, not luck. Learn what the numbers mean, how to flag and chord, how first-click safety works, and the deductions that clear a board.
Play MinesweeperThe objective
Open every safe square. Never open a mine.
A Minesweeper board hides a fixed number of mines under a grid of covered squares. Every square you open that is not a mine shows a number: how many of its up-to-eight neighbours are mines. From those numbers you can prove which covered squares are safe and which are deadly.
You win the instant every non-mine square is open — you never have to open the mines themselves, and you do not have to flag them. You lose the instant you open a mine. There is no move limit; the only clock is a timer that records how fast you cleared the board.
The game is free, runs in the browser, and needs no account. Open play Minesweeper for the board; use this guide for the rules, the deductions, and the patterns that make a dense board fast.
Controls
Reveal, flag, chord
Three actions cover the whole game. Everything else is deduction.
Reveal
Left click / tap
Opens a covered square. On a number whose flags already match its count, a left click chords — it opens every remaining neighbour in one move. On touch, a plain tap reveals unless flag mode is on.
Flag
Right click / long-press
Marks or unmarks a suspected mine. On a phone, press and hold a square, or turn on the flag toggle below the board so every tap places a flag instead.
Keyboard
Arrow keys / WASD
Move the highlighted cursor around the grid. Space or Enter opens the square under the cursor; F flags it. R starts a new board and M mutes sound.
The loop
Four steps, repeated until the board is clear
Every board is the same rhythm. Getting good at Minesweeper is getting fast at step two.
- 1
Open your first square
Click any covered square to start. The first click is always safe and always opens a space — mines are only placed after you commit, and never under or next to that opening move.
- 2
Read the numbers
Every opened square shows a number from 1 to 8: exactly how many mines touch it, counting all eight neighbours. A blank square touches zero mines, so its neighbours open automatically in a cascade.
- 3
Flag the mines
When a number proves a hidden square must be a mine, right-click (or use flag mode on touch) to mark it. Flags do not open squares; they record a deduction and stop an accidental click.
- 4
Clear every safe square
Keep chaining deductions from the numbers. You win the moment every square without a mine is open — you never have to open the mines themselves. Hit one and the game ends.
Rules in full
Every rule that decides a board
The same rules apply on all three board sizes. Only the grid and the mine count change.
The objective
The grid hides a fixed number of mines. Open every square that is not a mine and you win. You do not need to flag anything to win — flags are a bookkeeping aid — but you must never open a mine.
What the numbers mean
An opened square with a number is touching that many mines among its eight surrounding squares. An opened square with no number is touching zero mines, so the game opens its neighbours for you, and theirs, until it reaches numbered squares.
First-click safety
Mines are placed after your first click, avoiding that square and its neighbours, so the opening move always reveals an area. This is the modern standard and it is how Minesweeper Classic plays on every board.
Chording
Clicking a number that already has the right count of flags around it opens all of its other neighbours at once. It is the fastest way to clear a board — but if one of those flags is wrong, chording will open a mine.
Winning and losing
Open the last safe square and the timer stops, the board locks, and your time is recorded if it beats your best for that size. Open a mine and it detonates, every other mine is shown, and any misplaced flags are marked.
The timer and mine counter
The timer starts on your first reveal and counts whole seconds up to 999. The mine counter shows mines minus flags placed — it is a guide, not a score, and it can go negative if you over-flag.
Board sizes
Beginner, Intermediate, Expert
These are the standard Minesweeper boards used for decades. Beginner is selected by default and fits a phone screen. Switch size with the control above the board.
| Size | Grid | Mines | Density |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beginner | 9 × 9 | 10 | 12% |
| Intermediate | 16 × 16 | 40 | 16% |
| Expert | 16 × 30 | 99 | 21% |
Patterns
Shapes that resolve without counting
Once you recognise these on sight, most of a board falls in seconds. More on the tips page.
1-1 along a wall
Two 1s in a row against the edge of the opened area, both seeing the same run of covered squares: the square just past the second 1, away from the first, is safe. Each 1 is satisfied by the shared square between them.
1-2-1 on an edge
Three numbers reading 1-2-1 along a straight border of covered squares: the squares under the two 1s are mines, and the square under the 2 is safe. It resolves with no counting once you recognise the shape.
1-2-2-1
Along a border reading 1-2-2-1, the two middle squares (under the 2s) are mines and the two outer squares (under the 1s) are safe. A longer cousin of the 1-2-1 that shows up constantly on Expert.
Subset counting
When one number’s covered squares are entirely contained in another number’s, subtract. A "2" whose covered squares include every covered square of an adjacent "1" has exactly one mine in the squares the "1" cannot see.
Common mistakes
Why most boards are lost
Minesweeper losses are usually deduction errors, not bad luck. These are the patterns that end a solvable board.
Flagging on a hunch
A flag you have not proven is worse than no flag. Every number that touches it now lies to you, and chording off that flag will detonate a mine. Only flag a square when a number forces it.
Ignoring the mine counter
Late in a board the count of remaining mines is often the deciding piece of information. If three mines are left and exactly three squares are covered in a sealed-off region, they are all mines — no local number needed.
Guessing when a deduction exists
Most "unlucky" losses were solvable. Before you click a square you are unsure about, scan the whole border of the opened area again — a resolving number is often two or three squares away from where you were looking.
Chording too early
Chording is only safe once every flag around the number is correct. Doing it while one neighbour is still an unproven flag is one of the most common ways a strong board ends in one click.
Tunnel vision on one number
A square that looks ambiguous next to one number is frequently forced by a different number a step away. Read every number bordering a covered square before deciding it needs a guess.
Habits that lower your time
- Start in the middle, not a corner — a central first click opens a bigger area and gives you more numbers to work from.
- Work the edges of the opened area where numbers border the fewest covered squares — those are where a forced deduction is most likely.
- When a number already touches its full count of flags, click the number itself to open every other neighbour at once (chording).
- Learn the 1-2-1 and 1-2-2 edge patterns; they resolve instantly without any counting.
- Count subsets: if a "2" and a "1" share squares, the extra square the "2" sees but the "1" does not is often a guaranteed mine.
- Flag only what you have proven. Guessed flags corrupt every count that touches them and turn a solvable board into a lost one.
- Track the mine counter. When flags left equals covered squares in a region, the whole region is mines; when it hits zero, everything still covered is safe.
Where you can play
Same board on phone and desktop
Minesweeper Classic runs in any modern browser with no install. If two devices disagree about your best time, that is expected: records never leave the browser you played in.
Desktop browsers
Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari all run Minesweeper Classic with no plugin. Left click reveals, right click flags, and clicking a satisfied number chords. Keyboard control is available for hands-free play.
Phones and tablets
Tap to reveal and long-press to flag, or switch on flag mode so every tap places a flag. Beginner fits a phone screen without scrolling; Intermediate and Expert pan inside their frame.
Best times on this device
Your fastest win for each board size, games played, win rate, and current streak are stored in your browser. They stay until you reset them or clear site data, and they do not sync between devices.
Still stuck on a rule? Read the Minesweeper FAQ, see who makes Minesweeper Classic, or jump in and play.
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