Minesweeper
- 57 tools
- No watermark
- No daily limit
Open squares, work out where the mines are from the numbers, and flag them. The first click is always safe and so are the eight squares around it, so every game opens with a region to reason about rather than a coin toss. Chording works: click a number whose flags already account for it and the rest of its neighbours open, which is how anybody who plays this clears a board at speed. Beginner, intermediate and expert, and your best time on each is kept on this machine.
Click to open a square. Right-click, or press F, to flag one.
Click to open, right-click or F to flag, and click an open number to chord. On a phone, press and hold to flag, or turn on flag mode. Best times are kept on this machine only, in this browser, and go no further.
Frequently asked questions
Can the first click be a mine?
No, and neither can any of the eight squares around it. The mines are laid after you click, avoiding that whole three by three block, so the opening move always hands you an open region with numbers around its edge. A version where the first click can kill you is not a game of deduction with a bad start, it is a coin toss with a build-up. Some implementations only protect the clicked square, which is better and still leaves you staring at a single number with nothing to work from.
What is chording?
Clicking a number that already has the right count of flags around it, which opens everything else it touches. It is how the game is actually played at speed, and it can be wrong: if your flags are in the wrong places, the chord opens a mine and you lose, exactly as clicking those squares one at a time would have. Refusing to chord on bad flags would quietly turn flags into a hint system.
How do I flag on a phone?
Press and hold a square, or turn on flag mode and tap. Both work, because each is wrong on its own: a long press is what people try first and it fails silently if your finger drifts, and a mode toggle is reliable and easy to forget you left switched on. The toggle shows its state so you can see which way round you are.
Is anything sent to a server?
No, and there is no server to send it to. The site’s security policy sets connect-src ‘none’, so the browser blocks network requests from these pages. The board is generated in this tab and your best times are kept in this browser on this machine.
Can I play it with a keyboard only?
Yes. Tab moves between squares, Enter or space opens one, and F flags it. Each square announces its row, its column and what is on it, so the board is readable rather than a picture of one.
Are the boards the standard sizes?
Yes: beginner is nine by nine with ten mines, intermediate sixteen by sixteen with forty, and expert thirty by sixteen with ninety-nine. Those are the sizes every published time is measured on, so a time here means the same thing as a time anywhere else.
Why does the mine counter go negative?
Because it counts what you have flagged, not what is true. Flag more squares than there are mines and it goes below zero, which is information: it tells you that you have made a mistake somewhere. A counter that stopped at zero would be hiding that from you.