Minesweeper blog

Strategy, patterns, and speed techniques. Start with the complete strategy guide, then dig into patterns and chording. New to the game? Learn the basics first.

• Minesweeper Strategy: How to Win Every Game

  A complete Minesweeper strategy guide: open safely, read the numbers, work the edges, and learn when a guess is unavoidable. Win more games, lose fewer.

• How to Play Minesweeper on Google, Windows, and Online

  Where to play Minesweeper: the hidden Google game, the classic Windows version, and free online boards. How to launch each and which controls to use.

• Minesweeper Patterns: 1-2-1, 1-2-2-1, and Beyond

  Learn the Minesweeper patterns that win games: the 1-1, 1-2-1, and 1-2-2-1 patterns, plus the subtraction trick. Spot them on sight and clear edges fast.

• Minesweeper World Records and How to Get Faster

  Minesweeper world records: the fastest Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert times ever recorded, how they're verified, and the techniques that make them possible.

• What Do the Numbers Mean in Minesweeper?

  What do the numbers mean in Minesweeper? Each number counts the mines touching that cell. Here's how to read them and turn them into safe, certain clicks.

• How to Flag in Minesweeper (and When Not To)

  How to flag in Minesweeper, and the surprising case for flagging less. Right-click flagging, when flags help, and why speedrunners barely use them.

• No-Guess Minesweeper and the 50/50 Problem

  Why classic Minesweeper sometimes forces a coin-flip guess, what a 50/50 is, and how no-guess Minesweeper guarantees every board is solvable by logic alone.

• The History of Minesweeper

  The history of Minesweeper: from 1960s mainframe games to Microsoft bundling it with Windows in 1990, and how it became one of the most-played games ever.

• Minesweeper Difficulty Levels Explained: Beginner to Expert

  Minesweeper difficulty levels explained: Beginner 9x9, Intermediate 16x16, Expert 16x30, and beyond. Board sizes, mine counts, and which to play next.

• Chording: The Fastest Way to Clear Minesweeper

  Chording is the speed secret of Minesweeper: click a number with both buttons to clear all its safe neighbors at once. Here's how it works and when it's safe.