Minesweeper — Free Online Classic
Play the classic Minesweeper in your browser. Three difficulty levels, flag mode for mobile, chording, a timer, and a guaranteed safe first click. No downloads, runs entirely in your browser.
How to Play Minesweeper
- 1Click any square to start — your first click is always safe and opens an area.
- 2Each number tells you how many mines touch that square (including diagonals).
- 3Flag the squares you deduce are mines (right-click or Flag Mode).
- 4Reveal every safe square to win — hit a mine and it's game over.
A Little History
Minesweeper is one of the most-played computer games ever made, largely because it shipped free with Windows from 1990 onward — an entire generation learned it during idle moments at the office. Its roots go back to 1960s and 70s mainframe games, but the version everyone knows was written by Robert Donner and Curt Johnson for Microsoft. Beneath its simple appearance is a genuine logic puzzle: with careful deduction, the vast majority of a board can be solved without any guessing at all.
How to Read the Numbers
Every revealed number is a clue about its eight surrounding squares. The skill of Minesweeper is in comparing those clues. If a 1 sits at the edge of the opened area and only one of its neighbours is still hidden, that hidden square must be the mine — flag it. Once a number has all its mines flagged, every other neighbour is guaranteed safe and can be revealed. Chains of these deductions cascade across the board: one certain flag reveals a safe square, whose number creates another certain flag, and so on.
The 1-2-1 and 1-2-2-1 Patterns
Experienced players recognise recurring number patterns along the edge of the opened area that resolve instantly. The classic 1-2-1 pattern along a wall means the mines sit under the two 1s, and the square under the 2 is safe. The 1-2-2-1 pattern means the mines are under the two 2s. Learning to spot these on sight is the single biggest jump in solving speed — you stop calculating each square and start reading the board like text.
When You Have to Guess
Occasionally a board reaches a state where no square is provably safe and you must guess. When that happens, guess the square with the lowest probability of being a mine — often a square bordered by small numbers, or one in a large unopened region where mines are spread thin. Good players minimise how often they are forced to guess by clearing the certain areas first and leaving the ambiguous corners for last, when more information is available.
Minesweeper Tips
Flag what you're sure of
Flagging known mines frees you to reveal their other neighbours confidently and enables chording. Do not flag on a hunch — a wrong flag misleads every deduction after it.
Work the edges
The border between opened and unopened squares is where all the information lives. Solve along that frontier rather than staring at the blank middle.
Learn the 1-2-1 pattern
Along a wall, 1-2-1 puts mines under the 1s and safety under the 2. Recognising it on sight saves real time.
Use chording to go fast
Once a number's mines are all flagged, click it to open the rest of its neighbours in one move. It is the key to fast clear times.
Clear certainties first
Reveal everything you can prove before you gamble. More opened squares means more clues, which often turns a guess into a certainty.
Guess smart when forced
If you must guess, pick the square least likely to be a mine — usually one touching low numbers or in a wide-open region.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you play Minesweeper?
The board hides mines under a grid of squares. Reveal squares one at a time: if you hit a mine, the game ends; if you reveal a safe square, it shows a number telling you how many mines touch that square (including diagonally). Use those numbers to deduce where the mines are, flag them, and reveal every safe square to win.
What do the numbers mean?
A number on a revealed square is the count of mines in the eight squares surrounding it. A 1 means exactly one of its neighbours is a mine; a 3 means three are. A blank revealed square touches no mines, so the game automatically opens up the connected area around it. Comparing the numbers of adjacent squares is how you work out which specific squares are safe.
Is the first click always safe?
Yes. This version places the mines only after your first click, and it keeps the clicked square and its neighbours mine-free — so your first click always opens an area rather than ending the game instantly. That is the standard modern behaviour and removes the pure-luck deaths that plague older versions.
How do I flag a mine?
On desktop, right-click a square to place or remove a flag. On mobile, tap the Flag Mode button to switch taps into flagging, then tap the suspected mines (tap it again to go back to revealing). Flags mark where you think mines are; the counter shows how many mines remain unflagged.
What is chording?
Chording is a speed technique: once you have flagged exactly as many mines as a number shows around it, click that number and the game reveals all its remaining unflagged neighbours at once. It saves many clicks — but only works when your flags are correct, so use it carefully.
How do you win Minesweeper?
You win by revealing every square that is not a mine. You do not have to flag the mines — flagging just helps you keep track. When the last safe square is revealed, the game recognises the win and marks all remaining mines. Your time is shown, so you can try to beat it.