Minesweeper
A 7×7 Minesweeper board with 6 mines, guaranteed solvable without guessing. Open all 43 safe cells as fast as you can — your clear time is the score.
First time here? Walk the 4×4 demo first — it is not timed.
This measures your deduction from the numbers, right now.
Each number counts the mines in the 8 cells around it. Open all 43 safe cells to clear the board — your time is the score.
- 1. Tap a cell to open it.
- 2. Press and hold about 0.4s to flag a mine.
- 3. Flags all in? Tap that number to open the rest.
Every board is solvable by reasoning — you never have to guess, so read the mines-left count too.
- not opened
- 2 mines near
- flagged
How to read your score
| Score | What it means |
|---|---|
| Under 20 seconds | On this page's 7×7 Minesweeper board with 6 mines, a clear time under 20 seconds is the fastest of five descriptive bands. On a mid-range board that is a pace of roughly 0.9 squares per second, which usually means the chains of deduction were read in a single pass with almost no going back to re-check a number. It describes one cleared round, not a ranking against other players. |
| 20-32 seconds | On this page's 7×7 Minesweeper board with 6 mines, a clear time of 20 to 32 seconds is the second-fastest of five descriptive bands, a pace of roughly 0.5 to 0.9 squares per second on a mid-range board. Times land here when the deductions are found quickly and satisfied numbers are chorded open in one tap instead of cell by cell. It describes one cleared round, not a ranking against other players. |
| 32-50 seconds | On this page's 7×7 Minesweeper board with 6 mines, a clear time of 32 to 50 seconds is the middle of five descriptive bands and the usual range once you know the rules, a pace of roughly 0.35 to 0.5 squares per second on a mid-range board. Most of the time in this range goes into re-reading pairs of overlapping numbers. It describes one cleared round, not a ranking against other players. |
| 50-85 seconds | On this page's 7×7 Minesweeper board with 6 mines, a clear time of 50 to 85 seconds is the second-slowest of five descriptive bands, a pace of roughly 0.2 to 0.35 squares per second on a mid-range board. The board was cleared by reasoning, with time spent re-checking numbers and the mines-left count along the way. It describes one cleared round, not a ranking against other players. |
| Over 85 seconds | On this page's 7×7 Minesweeper board with 6 mines, a clear time over 85 seconds is the slowest of five descriptive bands and a completely ordinary first-time result, a pace under about 0.2 squares per second. The board was still cleared by reasoning with no guessing involved, and times usually drop steeply over the first few boards as the three deduction rules become familiar. It describes one cleared round, not a ranking against other players. |
Lower is better, and only a cleared round has a time at all — a lost round shows how many cells you opened instead. These five ranges come from this site's own trial runs on the same 7×7 board with 6 mines, not from a survey of players, so they cannot tell you how many people you are faster than; compare a time with your own cleared rounds on this board. The squares-per-second figures are arithmetic on a mid-range board of 3BV 18, and a 9×9 or expert board shifts every number here.
How to play
- Read the opening: The board starts with one area already turned over. Each number on it counts the mines in the 8 cells touching it, so the numbers along the edge of that area are where every deduction begins.
- Open a cell with a tap: Tap any covered cell to open it. If it has no mines next to it, the whole surrounding area opens in one go. A short tap is always an open — flagging needs a longer press.
- Flag a mine with a long press: Press and hold a cell for about 0.4 seconds to flag it. The mines-left readout at the top drops by one. Press and hold again to take the flag off; a flagged cell can never be opened by a tap.
- Chord a satisfied number: When a number already has that many flags around it, a small dot appears in its corner. One tap on it opens every remaining cell around it at once. If one of those flags was wrong, the chord hits a mine and the round ends as a loss.
- Clear all 43 safe cells: The board is cleared when all 43 cells without mines are open. The clock stops on the last one, and the result card shows your time, your cleared rate and which band the time falls in. If you open a mine instead, the round ends there with no time — start a new board and the next one is a fresh layout.
What this measures
Every board is 7×7 with 6 mines, so 43 cells are safe. A number on an opened cell counts the mines among the 8 cells that touch it, diagonals included. A cell with no mines nearby shows nothing and opens its whole surrounding area in one pass.
Every board on this page can be cleared without guessing. Exactly one mine layout fits the opening you are given, and three rules are enough on their own to finish it: a number whose mines are all accounted for, the difference between two overlapping numbers, and the count of mines still left on the whole board. That last one is why the mines-left readout stays on screen — when a board looks stuck, compare it with how many covered cells remain.
The first click is already made for you. The opening area is turned over before the clock starts, so the round never begins with a coin flip, and the time it takes to find a safe first cell is not part of anybody's score.
Short tap opens, a long press of about 0.4 seconds flags, and a tap on a number whose flags are complete opens the rest around it. A press that lands between the two lengths deliberately does nothing, so a flag you pressed slightly too briefly will not open the cell underneath by accident.
Your result card reads bottom-up from one number: the big readout is your clear time in seconds, and lower is better. Under it, "cleared" is how many of your finished rounds ended in a full clear, and the small print is your pace in squares per second plus that board's 3BV — the fewest clicks a perfect player would have needed. Your best time only ever comes from a cleared round.
Three mistakes cost beginners the most rounds. Flagging every cell that looks suspicious wastes presses and tells you nothing new; chording a number whose flags you have not actually deduced opens a mine the moment one flag is misplaced; and ignoring the mines-left count leaves the one deduction that unsticks most boards unused.
Your time is the score, and there is also a ten-minute runaway cutoff — a round that runs past it is dropped rather than recorded. Opening a mine ends the round immediately; that is a real result and it counts toward your cleared rate, but a lost round has no time at all, so it can never be a personal best.
A round that is interrupted is thrown away rather than resumed. Leaving the page, reloading, quitting with the X, or a display stall long enough to make the clock meaningless all end the round with no score and no record, so the times you keep are only from rounds you played start to finish.
Scores stay in this browser. Your best time, the recent-rounds list, which boards you have already seen and whether you have done the demo are all stored locally, and nothing is sent anywhere.
FAQ
How do you play Minesweeper without guessing?
You never need to guess here, because every board is built so logic alone finishes it. Exactly one mine layout fits the opening area, and three rules reach a full clear on their own: a number whose flags are complete, a subset difference between two overlapping numbers, and the whole-board count of remaining mines. When a board seems stuck, the missing step is almost always the third one — compare the mines-left readout with how many covered cells are left.
What is a good Minesweeper time on a 7×7 board?
On this page's 7×7 board with 6 mines, 32 to 50 seconds is the middle band and the usual range once you know the rules, and under 20 seconds is the fastest band here. Those ranges come from this site's own trial runs on the same board, so they describe this board size only — a 9×9 or expert board shifts the whole distribution and the numbers do not carry across. They also describe times, not players: they cannot tell you where you rank.
Is Minesweeper luck or skill?
On this page it is entirely skill, because no board here can force a guess. Classic Minesweeper does sometimes end in a true 50/50 where two covered cells are indistinguishable and only luck decides; the boards on this page are filtered so that case never occurs, and the first area is opened for you before the clock starts. Every cell you open can be deduced from the numbers already on screen, so a loss here is a misread rather than bad luck.
What does chording mean in Minesweeper?
Chording means opening every remaining cell around a number in a single tap. It only works when that number already has exactly as many flags beside it as it shows, and those numbers are marked with a small dot in the corner. It is the single biggest time saver in the game and also the biggest risk: if one of the flags is in the wrong place, the chord opens a mine and the round is lost.
What is 3BV in Minesweeper?
3BV is the fewest clicks a perfect player needs to clear a board without flagging or chording. It counts each empty area that opens in one click as one unit, plus every numbered cell that does not touch such an area. Every board on this page sits in a narrow 3BV band of 16 to 20, which is why re-rolling for an easy board gains you nothing and why two times recorded here are comparable with each other. Your result card shows the 3BV of the board you just played.
What skill does Minesweeper practise?
It practises step-by-step deduction under a clock: reading local constraints, combining two overlapping ones, and tracking a whole-board total. The score is one thing only — how long you took to clear one 7×7 board with 6 mines, plus how often your finished rounds ended in a clear. It is not a measure of intelligence, not a clinical assessment and not a population ranking.
Is the first click in Minesweeper always safe?
On this page, yes — and it is already made for you. The opening cell is chosen so its 3×3 neighbourhood holds no mines, and that area is turned over before the clock starts. An unlucky first click is a coin flip rather than a deduction, so removing it means every round begins with real information and the hunt for a safe opening never lands in anyone's time.
How do you get better at Minesweeper?
Work the edge of the opened area instead of hunting across the board, and read pairs of overlapping numbers rather than one number at a time — most deductions that look impossible are a subset difference between two neighbours. Flag only when a flag enables a chord, since extra flags cost presses and reveal nothing. Repeating boards here lowers your time on this task; it is practice at this task, not a change in general ability.
Related games
ThinkingSudokuMost of the grid is already filled. Finish the marked cells as fast as you can, and see what the clock says.PlayAbout 1 min
ThinkingQueens PuzzleSolve a 7×7 logic grid: place one queen in every row, column and color region, with no two queens touching.PlayAbout 1 min
ThinkingCode BreakerGuess the hidden colour code. Every guess comes back with two numbers — how many pegs are exactly right, and how many are the right colour in the wrong place.PlayAbout 2 min
ThinkingTower of HanoiMove four disks to the right-hand peg, then compare your move count with the fixed 15-move shortest route.PlayAbout 1 minThis test is for self-understanding and practice only, not a clinical or intelligence diagnostic tool. It is a non-standardised, timed adaptation of the classic Minesweeper rules, and its result — how one round went — cannot be used interchangeably with any clinical assessment score.
Last updated: 2026-10-11 · Scores stay on this device