How to play

The goal is to reveal every safe cell on the grid without clicking a mine. The board starts fully hidden. Left-click any cell to reveal it. If it’s a mine, the game ends. If it’s safe, it shows a number from 1–8 indicating how many of its 8 neighboring cells contain mines, or it opens a blank region automatically when no adjacent mines exist.

Right-click (or long-press on mobile) to place a flag on a cell you suspect contains a mine. This marks it visually and prevents accidental clicks. Flagged cells can be unflagged with another right-click.

Controls

Action	Desktop	Mobile
Reveal a cell	Left-click	Tap
Flag / unflag	Right-click	Long-press
Chord reveal	Click a revealed number with enough flags around it	Tap the number
New game	Click the smiley face / New Game button	Same

Understanding numbers

Every revealed number tells you the exact count of mines touching that cell’s 8 neighbors. For example, a cell showing 2 surrounded by 3 unrevealed neighbors and 5 revealed safe cells means exactly 2 of those 3 unrevealed neighbors are mines. Chain this logic across multiple numbered cells to narrow down which cells are safe.

Strategy tips

Open corner / edge cells first: on the first click, the game guarantees a safe reveal. Corners and edges have fewer neighbors, making the opening cascade larger.
The 1-2-1 pattern: a row reading “1-2-1” along an edge typically means the two mines are directly beside the “2”. The outer cells of the pattern are safe.
Flag confidently, click carefully: only flag when you are certain a mine is there. Incorrect flags mislead you in later deductions.
When to guess: some configurations are genuinely 50/50 with no logical resolution. In that case, pick the cell with the lowest mine probability and accept the risk.

Difficulty presets

Difficulty	Grid	Mines	Mine density
Beginner	9 × 9	10	12%
Intermediate	16 × 16	40	16%
Expert	30 × 16	99	21%

Probability and the first click

This implementation guarantees the first click is always safe - mines are placed after your first reveal, ensuring you never lose immediately. After the opening, the probability of any unrevealed cell being a mine equals:

P(mine) = remaining mines ÷ remaining unrevealed cells

Use this as a baseline. Numbered cells constrain the probability further: a "1" with only one unrevealed neighbor means that neighbor has P(mine) = 1.0. A "1" with four unrevealed neighbors that hasn't been constrained by adjacent cells has P = 0.25.

Chord clicking

Chord clicking is an advanced speed technique: if a numbered cell already has the correct number of flags around it, clicking the number itself simultaneously reveals all unflagged neighbors. This is the key technique used by expert speedrunners - it reduces the number of individual clicks required to clear a board by 30–40%.

Warning: if any flag is placed incorrectly, a chord click will detonate the misidentified mine. Only chord-click when you are certain your flags are correct.

World records

Competitive Minesweeper is tracked at minesweeper.info, the official records site. Top Expert (30×16, 99 mines) times are under 35 seconds for the best players in the world. The current world record progression has seen Expert cleared in under 31 seconds. Intermediate and Beginner records are proportionally faster due to lower mine density.