Flagging or no flagging: two ways to play fast
Most people learn Minesweeper by flagging every mine they find. It’s the natural way to play: find a mine, mark it, move on. So it surprises people to learn that many fast players hardly flag at all.
There are two main styles, and both have their place.
Flagging
In the flagging style, you right-click every mine you identify, then use chording to clear around numbers. Chording means clicking a number that already has all its flags. Every other square around it opens at once.
The strengths are clear. Your flags are a record of what you’ve worked out, so you don’t have to hold it in your head. Chording lets you open three or four squares with one click. When you come back to a part of the board later, your earlier work is still there.
The cost is the flags themselves. Every mine needs a right-click, and an Expert board has 99 of them.
No flagging
In the no flagging style, often shortened to NF, you never mark mines. You simply open the squares you know are safe, one at a time. The mines stay covered, and you remember where they are.
This saves every right-click, which adds up on a large board. It also keeps your hand movements simple, since you’re only ever left-clicking. The downside is memory. With no flags to look at, you have to keep track of which covered squares are mines, and a lapse means clicking one.
Measuring a board: 3BV
To compare styles, players use a number called 3BV, short for Bechtel’s Board Benchmark Value. It’s the smallest number of left clicks needed to clear a board without flags. Each empty area counts as one click, since one click opens it all, and each numbered square that isn’t opened by an empty area counts as one more.
3BV lets you compare games fairly. A board with lots of big openings might have a 3BV of 100, while a crowded one of the same size might be 180. Dividing 3BV by your time in seconds gives a speed in 3BV per second, which tells you more than the time alone.
It also shows why chording helps. Your actual clicks divided by the 3BV is your efficiency. Good chording can open several squares per click, so a skilled flagging player can finish with fewer clicks than the 3BV. An NF player can at best match it.
Which should you use?
- If you’re learning, flag. It’s easier to see your reasoning and fix mistakes.
- If you mostly play Beginner, try NF. The boards are small enough to remember, and it’s quicker.
- On Expert and Master, most players mix the two. Flag where it lets you chord a lot at once, and skip flags on isolated mines you’ll never need to chord around.
Either way, the patterns on the strategy page are what make you fast. Clicking technique matters less than seeing the answer quickly.
On this site you can play either way. Flags are there when you want them, and chording works by clicking a number, by middle-clicking it, or by pressing Space over it.