Minesweeper

1. Click or tap any cell. The first one is always safe, and it opens an area of the board.
2. A number tells how many mines touch that cell, in the 8 cells around it. A blank cell has no mine next to it.
3. When you know a cell has a mine, put a flag on it. When you know it is safe, open it.
4. Open every cell that has no mine to win. Opening a mine ends the game.
5. The counter shows the mines left: the mines of the board less your flags.

• Mouse: left click opens a cell, right click puts or takes a flag.
• Phone and tablet: tap opens a cell, a long press puts a flag. Switch to Flag, and a tap puts a flag instead.
• Big boards on a phone: press Bigger cells, then drag the board to move around it.
• Chord: click or tap a number that has as many flags around it as its number, and every other cell around it opens. A middle click chords too.
• Keyboard and Chromebook: Tab to the board, move with the arrow keys, open with Space or Enter, and flag with F.

Beginner is 9 by 9 with 10 mines, Intermediate is 16 by 16 with 40 mines, and Expert is 30 by 16 with 99 mines, the sizes of the classic game. Custom takes 5 to 24 rows, 5 to 30 columns and as many mines as fit. On a phone held upright, a wide board turns on its side so the cells stay big.

On a normal board, you sometimes reach two cells that the numbers cannot tell apart, and you must guess. Turn on No guessing, under the board, and every board of the three levels can be cleared by logic alone from the first click. When you make that click, our solver plays the board from it with no guess. A board that it cannot clear is thrown away, and the next one is tried.

• A number that touches as many covered cells as its number has a mine in each of them. A 1 next to one covered cell is the easy case.
• Learn the 1-2-1 pattern: along a straight row of covered cells, the mines are the cells across from the two 1s, and the cell across from the 2 is safe. In a 1-2-2-1, the mines are across from the two 2s.
• Chord instead of opening cells one at a time. You need the right flags, so flag only the mines you need.
• Start on Beginner to learn the patterns, then move to Intermediate and Expert.