diff --git a/sidecar/menu.ts b/sidecar/menu.ts
index 52cf8e8..90f4ba7 100644
--- a/sidecar/menu.ts
+++ b/sidecar/menu.ts
@@ -60,6 +60,34 @@ export function currentDifficulty(window: WindowGeometry): Difficulty | null {
   return null;
 }
 
+/**
+ * Any window that is not the game itself — a dialog, and therefore something in the way.
+ *
+ * This guard exists because of what happens WITHOUT it, which is worse than a failed command. A modal
+ * dialog swallows the click meant for the menu bar, the menu never opens, and the second click — aimed at
+ * where a menu item would have been — lands on the BOARD. Retrying does it three times. On a live game
+ * that reveals cells and can lose it.
+ *
+ * Found the honest way: `POST /difficulty` failed three times against a "you have the fastest time"
+ * prompt that had been waiting for a name, and the fix is to refuse rather than to click harder.
+ *
+ * Named windows only. wine litters the display with 1x1 stubs, and the game's own title is the one thing
+ * that is never a dialog.
+ */
+export async function blockingDialog(display: string): Promise<string | null> {
+  const found = await run(['xdotool', 'search', '--name', '.'], { DISPLAY: display }, 5_000);
+  if (!found.ok) return null;
+
+  for (const id of found.stdout.trim().split('\n').filter(Boolean)) {
+    const geom = await run(['xdotool', 'getwindowgeometry', '--shell', id], { DISPLAY: display }, 5_000);
+    if (!geom.ok || Number(/^WIDTH=(\d+)$/m.exec(geom.stdout)?.[1] ?? 1) <= 1) continue;
+    const name = await run(['xdotool', 'getwindowname', id], { DISPLAY: display }, 5_000);
+    const title = name.stdout.trim();
+    if (title && title !== 'Minesweeper X') return title;
+  }
+  return null;
+}
+
 export type SelectResult =
   | { ok: true; level: Difficulty; changed: boolean }
   | { ok: false; reason: string; window: WindowGeometry | null };
@@ -76,6 +104,11 @@ export async function selectDifficulty(level: Difficulty, display: string): Prom
   const spec = DIFFICULTIES[level];
 
   return withStableWindow(async () => {
+    const blocked = await blockingDialog(display);
+    if (blocked) {
+      return { ok: false, reason: `"${blocked}" is open on the board — dismiss it first`, window: null };
+    }
+
     let last: WindowGeometry | null = null;
 
     for (let attempt = 0; attempt < 3; attempt++) {
@@ -125,6 +158,9 @@ export type PlayResult = { ok: true; file: string } | { ok: false; reason: strin
  */
 export async function playReplay(file: string, display: string): Promise<PlayResult> {
   return withStableWindow(async () => {
+    const blocked = await blockingDialog(display);
+    if (blocked) return { ok: false, reason: `"${blocked}" is open on the board — dismiss it first` };
+
     const win = await findWindow();
     if (!win) return { ok: false, reason: 'the game window is not there' };