Minesweeper

Minesweeper is the puzzle that taught a generation to count. The grid hides a set number of mines and the only information you ever get is a number: open a square and it tells you how many mined squares touch it. From there it is deduction - one number with a single square left beside it names that square, and a number whose mines are all accounted for clears every other square around it.

The tension is that the board only gives you information where you have already been. Certainties have to be found early, before the easy squares run out, and the discipline is in resisting the moves that only look certain - because the round ends the moment a mine is opened, and the last few squares are usually the ones that decide it.

It runs in your browser with nothing to download, in portrait, and it is played one square at a time by click or tap. There is no timer and no opponent, which is exactly why people still play it: the pace belongs to you, and the puzzle is the same puzzle it has always been.

Tips for reading the board

• Start with neighbours. Two numbers side by side tell you more together than either does alone - the difference between them is the mines.
• Subtract what you have found. Every square you can prove is a mine takes one away from each number around it.
• Clear the free squares before you guess. If a number's mines are all found, every other square it touches is safe.
• Make the guess that opens ground. When logic runs out, choose the square that reveals the most of the board rather than the one that settles the argument.

Minesweeper is a puzzle game made by MOVISOFT and published on GameDistribution. It plays with a mouse or a touchscreen, on desktop and on mobile.