What is the next move on this minesweeper board?

Question

Here is the board

I found an online minesweeper solver which can deduce what the next move is, so I know what the next move is and that it is logically obtainable. But it doesn't offer much help in explaining it, so I can't really learn from it.

So a solution here needs to provide a correct explanation.

Answer 1

Consider the section at the bottom-centre of the grid:

Exactly one of the two cells marked here with blue squares must be a mine, to satisfy the blue '1' clue to their left. This same mine will also satisfy the blue '1' clue to their right, so all other cells adjacent to that blue '1' must be safe (indicated here in yellow):



Similarly, exactly one of the two cells marked here with green squares must be a mine, to satisfy the green '2' clue between them (and the one to its left), which already has one of its two mines known. With this in mind, since we know two of the other three cells that are adjacent to the rightmost green '2' clue in this area are safe (shaded yellow), the cell beneath these on the bottom row must be a mine as it is the only space remaining that can account for its second mine.

This then has immediate knock-on deductions for the cells marked with green and blue squares. Hopefully you should be able to make further progress from there...

Answer 2

When I see this situation I don't even need to think.

When you have the pattern 1-2-1, regardless of what other cells are uncovered, or whether there is a wall, the green cells are safe.
This is one of the useful tricks to know, this pattern being quite common.

Answer 3

I feel like my answer is a slightly different way of looking at it :

We're gonna try to guess if the yellow square contains a mine or not. Let's suppose that it does and we'll see that we reach a contradiction.

Because of the two 2's that are above the yellow square, and because of the circled 1, we can say that the 3 crossed squares do not contain a mine.
This means that the blue square must contain one to satisfy the 2 adjacent to it.
The green square also has to contain a mine because of the 2 adjacent to it.

We thus get to a contradiction : the blue and green square can't both contain a mine because of the 1 that's inbetween them. Thus the yellow square cannot possibly be a mine ! From there you get pretty much to the same point as Stiv.

Answer 4

Due to the center bottom-most 1 there is one mine in three blue squares.
Then, due to the 2 above it, there is one mine in one of the two pink squares.
Then, due to the 1 above it, there is no mine in any of the three green squares, and in the dark blue one, either.

Once the green squares get cleared, it'll become obvious the 'pink' mine is on the left, consequently the 'blue' one is on the right.

Result:

Black dots are empty squares, but we don't know what numbers will appear there.

Answer 5

Well, I would continue with revealing the field as marked in the following:

(It cannot hold a mine since either the field two steps left or the one two steps left one step up must hold one because of the 1 three steps left.)
That way you get to know whether the field two steps below holds a mine or not. The field one step below cannot hold a mine as this would result in a contradict with the nearby 1s together with the 2 left to it.