How to play Minesweeper — rules, strategy and expert tips

📅 April 2026⏱ 5 min read🏷 Classic Games

Minesweeper has been installed on virtually every Windows PC since 1990, yet most people who played it never figured out the logic — they just clicked randomly and hoped for the best. This guide explains exactly how it works and how to win consistently.

The basic rules

The board is a grid of covered cells. Some cells hide mines, the rest are safe. Your job is to uncover every safe cell without clicking a mine.

Left-click to reveal a cell.
Right-click (or long-press on mobile) to plant a flag on a suspected mine.
When you reveal a safe cell, it shows a number — the count of mines in the 8 surrounding cells.
If a revealed cell has no mines nearby, it shows blank and automatically reveals all its neighbours.

How to read the numbers

The numbers are the entire game. A "1" means exactly one of the surrounding 8 cells is a mine. A "3" means three of them are mines. Everything else is deduction.

The simplest pattern: if a number cell has exactly that many unrevealed neighbours, all of them are mines — flag them. If a number cell has already had all its mines flagged, all remaining unrevealed neighbours are safe — reveal them.

💡 The 1-1 pattern (most useful trick)

If two adjacent "1" cells share only one unrevealed neighbour, that cell must be the mine for both. Everything else adjacent to either "1" is safe. This pattern unlocks dozens of stuck positions.

First click is always safe

In modern Minesweeper (including our version), mines are placed after your first click. The first move can never be a mine, and it always opens a large clear area. Start anywhere — the center of the board gives you the most information from the opening reveal.

💣 Play Minesweeper Free

Easy 9×9, Medium 16×16 or Expert 30×16. First click always safe. Best time tracking.

Play Now →

Difficulty levels explained

Easy (9×9, 10 mines) — 12% of cells are mines. Mostly logical, rarely requires guessing.
Medium (16×16, 40 mines) — 16% mines. Some guessing required in corners and isolated areas.
Expert (30×16, 99 mines) — 21% mines. Requires fast reading of patterns and some forced guesses. Completion under 100 seconds is considered strong play.

When you're stuck — the 50/50 guess

Some board states have no logical solution — there are two possible mine configurations and no information to distinguish them. This is normal, especially on Expert. When genuinely stuck, pick the cell adjacent to the lowest number (lower numbers = fewer mines = lower probability the remaining cell is the one). Then move on — it's a coin flip and accepting that is part of the game.

Chord-clicking (advanced)

If a numbered cell already has all its mines correctly flagged, clicking it again reveals all remaining unrevealed neighbours at once. This is called chord-clicking and is how fast players clear boards quickly. In our game, just left-click a revealed numbered cell to chord.

💡 Strategy summary

Start center → read numbers immediately → flag obvious mines → use 1-1 patterns → chord-click to accelerate → guess only when logically forced.