Minesweeper

Clear the field without touching a mine. The numbers are your clues.

How to play

Somewhere in the nine-by-nine grid, ten mines are hidden. Your job is to reveal every safe square without revealing a single mine. Reveal a square and it shows a number from 1 to 8 - that number is a clue telling you exactly how many mines touch that square, counting diagonals. Squares with no neighbouring mines open up as blank space and automatically reveal their neighbours. If you think a square hides a mine, mark it with a flag so you don't click it by accident. Reveal all 71 safe squares and you win; hit one mine and the game is over. Your first click is always safe.

Controls

• Desktop: left-click to reveal a square, right-click to place or remove a flag.
• Mobile: tap the Mode button to switch between Reveal and Flag, then tap squares.

Strategy: reading the numbers like a pro

The one rule that solves most boards

Almost every Minesweeper deduction comes down to one comparison: a number tells you how many mines it touches, and flags tell you how many you have already found. When a square's number equals the flags around it, every other covered neighbour is guaranteed safe - open them all. And when a square's number equals its covered neighbours, every one of those neighbours is a mine - flag them all. Ninety percent of a beginner board is just this rule applied over and over.

Work from the numbers, not from hunches

Edges of the opened area - where numbers meet covered squares - are where every safe move lives. If you can't find a guaranteed move there, look for overlapping clues: a "2" whose mines must both be in one pair of squares can shrink a neighbouring "3" into something you can solve. Only when no logic remains should you guess, and then guess on the square that touches the fewest numbers.

Don't over-flag

Flags are for mines you have proven, not mines you suspect. Sprinkling flags on guesses makes later counting unreliable and is the cause of most accidental losses. If you aren't sure, leave the square unmarked and come back when the surrounding numbers prove it.

A short history

Mine-clearing logic games appeared on home computers in the 1980s, but Minesweeper became world-famous when Microsoft included it with Windows 3.1 in 1992 - partly, the story goes, to teach people how to use a mouse. It has been a quiet fixture of offices and classrooms ever since, and competitive players still race to clear expert boards in under forty seconds. This version uses the classic beginner layout: nine by nine with ten mines.