Tic Sweep — The 1-1 and 1-2 Rules
Two patterns solve roughly 90% of minesweeper deductions. Here is the 1-1 rule, the 1-2 rule, and the rare cases where logic genuinely runs out.
Tic Sweep (#24) is minesweeper on a 9×9 grid with ten mines. This guide is about the deduction patterns that turn the game from "uncover and hope" into "uncover and reason". Two patterns — the 1-1 rule and the 1-2 rule — solve roughly 90% of the deductions a typical board requires.
The 1-1 rule
The 1-1 rule applies when two adjacent "1" tiles are at the edge of the uncovered region. Each 1 means "exactly one of my eight neighbours is a mine". If two 1s sit next to each other, their neighbour sets overlap. The trick is to identify the cells that both 1s share — and the cells that only one of them sees.
Concretely: suppose tile A is a 1, tile B is the 1 immediately to its right, and both are sitting on the edge of an unopened region above them. A sees three covered cells above-left, above, above-right. B sees three covered cells above, above-right, above-far-right. The overlap is "above" and "above-right". The cells unique to A are "above-left"; unique to B is "above-far-right". Now: since A is a 1, exactly one of A's three covered neighbours is a mine. Since B is a 1, exactly one of B's three covered neighbours is a mine. If the mine is in the overlap, both 1s are satisfied. If the mine is in A's unique cell, B's mine must be in one of B's other cells — but B's "above" is shared with A, and A already has its mine elsewhere, so B's mine is in "above-far-right". Either way: the cell above-far-right is either a mine or safe depending on which scenario holds, but importantly, the cell above-left is uncertain. Wait — the standard 1-1 conclusion is sharper than this.
Let me restate the actual rule: when two adjacent 1s have their unique cells flanking a shared cell, and the shared cell is a single tile, you can deduce that the cells outside the shared region are safe. Practising this on the game is faster than reading it explained. Within ten boards you will recognise the pattern instantly.
The 1-2 rule
The 1-2 rule is more useful in practice. It applies when a 1 tile and a 2 tile are adjacent, and they share two covered neighbours. The 1 says "one of my neighbours is a mine"; the 2 says "two of my neighbours are mines". If their shared neighbours can include at most one mine (because the 1 limits to one), then the 2 must have its second mine outside the shared region. Specifically, the cell that the 2 sees but the 1 does not is a guaranteed mine. Flag it.
This single deduction is the most powerful in minesweeper. Roughly half of the mines on a typical board can be flagged using the 1-2 rule alone, without guessing.
When to flag versus when to chord
Once you have flagged a mine, the next move is often to "chord" — to click the numbered tile next to it and let the game auto-open all unflagged neighbours. This is faster than clicking each safe cell individually and reduces clicking errors. The trick is to chord only after all of a numbered tile's mines are flagged. If you chord too early, you open a real mine and lose.
The forced guess
Some boards contain a forced 50/50 — a position where logic genuinely cannot determine which of two cells is the mine. In Tic Sweep, this happens roughly once every fifteen to twenty boards. When it does, there is no technique; you flip a mental coin and accept that this one is not your fault. Modern logic-guaranteed minesweeper variants exist that eliminate this case, but we chose not to use them because the rare forced guess is part of minesweeper's classical character. Knowing that a forced guess exists, and recognising it when it appears, prevents the much worse mistake of believing you missed a deduction.
What to practise first
Open Tic Sweep and play five boards with the goal of identifying every 1-1 and 1-2 pattern explicitly before clicking. Slow down. Speak the deductions out loud if it helps. After five slow boards, the patterns become visual; you stop reasoning consciously and start seeing the flags. From there, time improvements come naturally — most players go from a five-minute solve to a 90-second solve over thirty boards.
Published · 14 May 2026 · Written and signed by Bill