Minesweeper
Mouse and keyboard
- Left click to open a square. Hold the button down on a number to see which squares a chord would open.
- Right click to place or remove a flag.
- Left click a satisfied number to chord.
- Middle click a satisfied number to chord as well — the classic desktop gesture.
- Arrow keys move around the grid; Enter or Space opens, F flags.
Touch
- Tap to open a square.
- Press and hold to flag, or turn on Flag mode and tap.
- Tap a satisfied number to chord.
This panel
- F full screen
- M sound on or off
- ? this list
- Esc close, or leave full screen
- The clock stops while the board is off screen
Loading Minesweeper…
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| Board | Played | Won | Drawn | Win rate | Best | Fastest | Best run |
|---|
Awards for Minesweeper
- Demolition Clear an expert Minesweeper board. Needs: the expert board Locked
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About Minesweeper
No board ever needs a guess.
Minesweeper shipped with Windows in 1990 alongside solitaire, and where solitaire was there to teach the mouse, minesweeper was there to teach the right button.
It is not a game about luck. Almost every board is solvable by deduction alone, and the numbers tell you everything — the difficulty is entirely in reading them fast enough to enjoy it.
Also searched for as
- minesweeper game
- mine sweeper
- minesweper
- minesweeper online
- classic minesweeper
Whichever name you know it by, it is the same game: it runs in this browser, with no download and no sign-up.
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How to play Minesweeper
- Click any square to start. The first click is always safe and always opens a clear area — you can never lose on move one.
- A number tells you how many mines touch that square, counting all eight neighbours including diagonals.
- Flag a square you believe is a mine. On a phone, press and hold or turn on Flag mode; on a desktop, right-click. Turn on question marks (the ? button) if you like to mark squares you are unsure about — a flag then cycles to a ? and back to clear.
- Click a revealed number that already has the right count of flags around it to open every remaining neighbour at once. This is called chording Clicking a number that already has the right count of flags around it, which opens every other neighbour at once. and it is how the game is played at speed.
- You win when every square that is not a mine has been opened. You never have to click a mine to finish.
Strategy that actually helps
- Start with the 1s along the edges of an opened area. A 1 touching exactly one unopened square has told you exactly where its mine is, and every flag you place makes the neighbouring numbers readable.
- Learn the 1-2-1 pattern. Three numbers in a row reading 1-2-1 along a wall always means mine, safe, mine — no counting required, and it appears constantly.
- When two numbers share unopened squares, subtract them. If a 2 and a 1 overlap and the 2 has one extra square, that extra square is the mine. Most of the middlegame is this one move.
- Chord as soon as a number is satisfied. A number with as many flags around it as its own count, so every other neighbour of it is safe to open. It is faster than opening squares individually and it surfaces the next wave of information immediately.
- If you are stuck, the answer is on the board — every board we deal is finishable by logic, so there is nothing to guess at. When a pattern will not resolve, use the mine counter: the number of mines still unfound is a clue in its own right, and counting it against what is left covered settles most endgames.
Controls
Mouse and keyboard
- Left click to open a square. Hold the button down on a number to see which squares a chord would open.
- Right click to place or remove a flag.
- Left click a satisfied number to chord.
- Middle click a satisfied number to chord as well — the classic desktop gesture.
- Arrow keys move around the grid; Enter or Space opens, F flags.
Touch
- Tap to open a square.
- Press and hold to flag, or turn on Flag mode and tap.
- Tap a satisfied number to chord.
Questions
Can I lose on the first click?
No. In free play the mines are laid after your first click, avoiding that square and all eight around it, so your opening move always clears an area. On the Daily the board is laid from the date before anyone clicks and the same opening square is already revealed for everyone, so two people compare times on an identical board.
How do I flag a mine on a phone?
Two ways. Press and hold a square for a moment, or tap the Flag button to switch into flag mode and then tap squares normally. Tap it again to go back to opening squares.
What is chording?
Clicking a revealed number that already has exactly the right number of flags around it. It opens every other neighbour in one action. It is the single biggest speed gain in the game and it cannot go wrong if your flags are right.
What are the three difficulties?
The standard ones: beginner is 9×9 with 10 mines, intermediate is 16×16 with 40, and expert is 30×16 with 99. Your choice is remembered on this device. Expert scrolls sideways on a phone rather than shrinking the squares below a usable size.
Does every board have a solution without guessing?
Yes. Every board is played through a solver before you ever see it, and only the boards logic alone can finish are dealt — the Daily included. You are never forced to flip a coin between two squares. You can still lose, by opening a square you had not worked out or by chording on a wrong flag, and expert boards still stop basic pattern-matching about a dozen times each. But the deduction is always there to be found.