Classic Minesweeper gameplay — reveal numbers to deduce where the mines are, flag cells you suspect, and double-click a revealed number to chord-reveal its neighbors. Clear a board and you auto-advance to the next difficulty.
Score: 0Beginner 9x9💣 10⏱ 000
💣 Ready?
Tap the button below to start, beginning at Beginner 9x9
On desktop, right-click to place a flag; on mobile, turn on Flag Mode first, then tap a cell to flag it. Double-click a revealed number to chord-reveal the cells around it.
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🏆 Minesweeper Leaderboard
Where Minesweeper comes from
Minesweeper is a classic logic game with a very long history, best known for shipping built into Windows in the 1990s. Its Beginner 9x9, Intermediate 16x16, and Expert 16x30 boards are close to a universal standard across nearly every version of the game, and this version keeps all three classic presets intact.
Why the first click is always safe
This version uses a common modern quality-of-life tweak: mines are placed randomly only after your first click, and they deliberately avoid the cell you clicked plus its surrounding 3x3 area. That guarantees your opening move is never a mine, and it also gives you a good chance of opening up a large blank area right away instead of getting stuck with no information to reason from.
How to play
Click a cell to reveal it — the number shown tells you how many of the 8 surrounding cells contain mines. Revealing a 0 means there are no mines nearby at all, so it auto-chains and clears the whole connected blank region. Right-click (on mobile, switch to Flag Mode first) to plant a flag on a cell you suspect is a mine, so you don't accidentally click it. Double-clicking an already-revealed numbered cell, when the number of flags around it exactly matches that number, automatically reveals all its remaining unflagged neighbors — a speed technique advanced players rely on, though a misplaced flag can still cause you to hit a mine this way. Hitting a mine ends the game; revealing every non-mine cell clears the board and auto-advances you to the next difficulty.
Tips for a high score
Start reasoning from the edges of the board and areas with smaller numbers, and lean on the logic that when flag count equals the number, you can safely deduce the rest. Score is calculated from difficulty (Beginner/Intermediate/Expert) and time spent — higher difficulty means a higher base score, but taking longer subtracts from it, so a high score means both pushing to Expert difficulty and clearing boards quickly.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you play Minesweeper?
Click a cell to reveal it — the revealed number tells you how many of the 8 surrounding cells contain mines, and you use that to deduce which cells are safe and which are mines. Revealing a 0 auto-chains and clears the whole connected blank region. Hitting a mine ends the game; revealing every non-mine cell clears the board.
How do you flag mines?
On desktop, right-click a cell to flag it as a suspected mine, so you don't accidentally click it. On mobile, tap the Flag Mode button first to switch into flagging mode — while it's on, tapping a cell places a flag instead of revealing it.
What is chord-reveal?
Double-clicking an already-revealed numbered cell, when the number of flags placed around it exactly matches that number, automatically reveals every remaining unflagged neighbor — it speeds up the pace of the game. But if a flag is placed on the wrong cell, this can still cause you to hit a mine; it's a technique advanced players use, with real risk attached.
How is difficulty ranked?
This uses Minesweeper's three most classic standard difficulties: Beginner is a 9x9 board with 10 mines, Intermediate is 16x16 with 40 mines, and Expert is 16x30 with 99 mines. Clearing a board auto-advances you to the next difficulty, and once you reach Expert, it stays at Expert from then on.
Is the first click really guaranteed safe?
Yes — mines are placed randomly only after your first click, and they deliberately avoid the cell you clicked plus its surrounding 3x3 area, so your opening move is always guaranteed safe, and it's also likely to open up a large blank area right away.