Section 1: Introduction
Minesweeper is a single-player logic puzzle on a grid of covered cells, some containing hidden mines. Uncovering a safe cell reveals a number: how many mines touch it. From those numbers the rest is deduction.
The game predates its most famous version and has no owner as a concept; this page describes the standard implementation bundled with Windows from 1990, which set the conventions almost every version still follows.
Section 2: Platform & Setup
- Beginner: 9×9 grid, 10 mines.
- Intermediate: 16×16 grid, 40 mines.
- Expert: 30×16 grid, 99 mines.
- Controls: left click to uncover, right click to flag a suspected mine, and (in most versions) a middle click or both buttons to chord.
- A timer starts on the first click; a counter shows mines remaining minus flags placed.
Section 3: Objective
Uncover every cell that does not contain a mine. Flagging is an aid only — the game is won by clearing safe cells, not by flagging mines correctly. Uncovering a mine ends the game immediately.
Section 4: Gameplay & Modes
Reading the Numbers
- A revealed number is the count of mines in the eight surrounding cells.
- A cell with no adjacent mines shows blank and cascades, auto-revealing its neighbours until numbers are reached.
- If a number already touches that many flags, its remaining neighbours are provably safe.
- If a number's unrevealed neighbours equal its value, all of them are mines.
Chording
Clicking a satisfied number — one with the correct count of flags around it — uncovers all its remaining neighbours at once. This is where most of the speed in expert play comes from, and misplacing a flag beforehand makes it instantly fatal.
The First Click
In the standard implementation the first click is always safe; the board is generated or adjusted around it. Older versions did not guarantee this, which is why very old Minesweeper could end on move one.
Guessing
Not every board is fully solvable by logic. Some positions reduce to a genuine coin flip, which is why "no-guess" board generation is a common modern option.
Section 5: Scoring & Winning
There is no score. The metric is time to clear the board, recorded separately per difficulty.
- Win: every non-mine cell uncovered.
- Loss: a mine uncovered — immediate, with no lives.
Flag count is not part of the result: a board cleared with no flags placed at all is a legitimate win, and flagless play is a recognised style.
Section 6: Competitive Rules
No governing body exists; competitive Minesweeper is organised around community ranking sites and their conventions:
- Standard board sizes (beginner, intermediate, expert) are the only recognised categories for records.
- Timing runs from first click to final safe cell.
- No-guess boards are usually a separate category, since guaranteed solvability changes the discipline.
- Flagging vs non-flagging styles are commonly ranked separately, as is 3BV/s efficiency.
- Verification relies on video capture or replay files, since the game keeps no signed record.