What Is Minesweeper, and How to Play It Well

The rules

Minesweeper hides mines under a grid of covered squares. When you uncover a safe square, it shows a number, which counts how many mines touch it among its eight neighbours. A blank means zero, and the board opens up around it. The goal is to uncover every safe square and flag every mine.

The basic deductions

Two rules carry you a long way. If a number already touches that many flagged mines, every other neighbour is safe to open. If a number touches exactly as many covered squares as its value, every one of those squares is a mine. Alternating between these two ideas clears most of a board.

Reading pairs of numbers

The interesting logic comes from comparing neighbouring numbers. If a 1 and a 2 share some covered squares, the difference between them often forces a specific square to be a mine or to be safe. Learning to subtract one clue from another is what separates guessing from solving.

When you must guess

Sometimes the logic runs out and a square is genuinely fifty-fifty. Good players push deduction as far as it goes first, so those forced guesses are rare and the odds are as favourable as possible. Patience beats speed every time.