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About Minesweeper

Minesweeper is the puzzle that shipped with Windows for 20 years: a grid of covered squares, some hiding mines, and numbers that tell you how many mines touch each revealed square. Use the numbers to work out where the mines are, flag them, and clear everything else. Click a mine and it's over.

This page runs a faithful version of the Windows classic with the three standard boards — beginner (9×9, 10 mines), intermediate (16×16, 40) and expert (30×16, 99) — the timer, and the right-click flag. It is a game of pure logic with one moment of luck at the very start, and it is far more addictive than a spreadsheet-era relic has any right to be.

How to play Minesweeper

Reveal a square

Left click

Flag a mine

Right click (or long-press on touch)

Chord

Click a satisfied number to reveal all its unflagged neighbours

New game

Click the face, or pick a difficulty

1. Click anywhere to start. The first click is never a mine and usually opens a patch of empty squares.
2. Each number counts the mines in the eight squares around it. A 1 next to exactly one covered square means that square is a mine.
3. Right-click to flag mines you're sure of. Flags are for you; the game only checks that every safe square is revealed.
4. Clear all the non-mine squares to win. The timer records your time for each difficulty.

Minesweeper tips

• Learn the patterns: a 1-2-1 along a wall means mines under the 1s; a 1-1 at an edge means the far square is safe.
• Chord (click a number whose flags are complete) to clear its neighbours in one click — it's how expert times get under 100 seconds.
• Start in the corners and edges; they have fewer neighbours and give more certain information.
• When you're truly forced to guess, guess in the spot that opens the most squares if you're right.

Minesweeper — questions