How to Play Minesweeper: Rules, Controls, and Your First Board

The goal

A rectangular grid hides a fixed number of mines. Your job is to open every cell that is not a mine without ever opening one. The board is not a maze and there is no movement: every action is a click on a cell. The three standard sizes are Beginner at 9 by 9 with 10 mines, Intermediate at 16 by 16 with 40 mines, and Expert at 30 by 16 with 99 mines.

What the numbers mean

When you open a cell, it either shows a number or stays blank. A number tells you exactly how many mines touch that cell, counting all eight surrounding cells. A blank cell means no neighbouring mines, and the game automatically opens its neighbours too, which is why one click can clear a large area. Numbers are exact counts, not hints: a 2 always touches exactly two mines, never one and never three.

Flags and the mine counter

Right-click a covered cell to flag it, or long-press on a touch screen. Flags are notes to yourself: the game does not check them, and a flag on a safe cell does not hurt you directly. What it does do is change the mine counter, which shows the total number of mines minus the flags you have placed. Because of that, a wrong flag makes the counter misleading, so treat the counter as a useful summary only when your flags are trustworthy.

Chording: opening several cells at once

When a revealed number already touches exactly that many flags, you can click the number to open every other covered neighbour in one action. This is called chording, and it is the main reason experienced players are fast. If any of those neighbours is a mine, you lose, so chord only when you are sure the flags are correct.

Winning and losing

You win when every non-mine cell is open. You do not need to flag every mine, and the game will flag the remaining ones for you when the board is cleared. You lose the moment you open a mine; the board then reveals the mines, marks the one you hit, and shows an X on any flag that was not actually a mine. Your first click is always safe in this version, so the opening never ends a run.

Controls on desktop and mobile

The game is designed to work without a keyboard, but every action also has a key. On a phone, tap to reveal, long-press to flag, and tap a revealed number to chord. If long-pressing feels awkward, turn on Flag mode and tap cells to flag them instead.

Your first board, step by step

Start by clicking near the middle of the board; the first click is safe and usually opens a reasonable area. Read the numbers along the edge of the opened region, because those are the only cells that touch covered cells. Look for a number that touches exactly as many covered cells as its value: those are all mines, so flag them. Then look for a number whose mines are all flagged: every other neighbour is safe, so open them. Repeat until the board is clear.

• →Open in the middle first; the opening is guaranteed safe.
• →Only the numbers on the frontier matter — ignore the interior.
• →A number equal to its covered neighbours flags all of them.
• →A number with all its mines flagged opens everything else.
• →Use chording to clear satisfied numbers instead of clicking cell by cell.

Beginner mistakes

The most common mistake is flagging a cell because it looks dangerous rather than because a number proves it. That single habit causes most early losses, because the flags then feed back into your counting. The second is ignoring the mine counter: if the counter says zero mines remain, every covered cell is safe. The third is treating a guess as a failure. In Classic mode some positions genuinely require a guess, and the correct response is to take the guess with the best odds and move on.