How borders and neighbouring countries help with guesses

In CityDrop, a country guess is scored on where it lands relative to the real borders: a click inside scores 1,000, and a click just outside still scores in the high 900s. That means a near miss is genuinely valuable. Knowing that Laos sits between Vietnam and Thailand is the kind of fact that converts a wild guess into a strong answer, even when you are not certain which of the two the question means.

• Germany has nine — Denmark, Poland, Czechia, Austria, Switzerland, France, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands — a ring that makes central Europe easy to reconstruct.
• France has eight — Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Monaco, Spain and Andorra. It also borders Brazil, through French Guiana in South America.
• Brazil touches everyone except two — ten neighbours — Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, French Guiana, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela. Only Chile and Ecuador are out.
• Russia has fourteen — Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia and North Korea — counting the Kaliningrad region's borders with Poland and Lithuania.
• China has fourteen — Afghanistan, Bhutan, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Vietnam.
• India has six — Pakistan, China, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Myanmar, with Sri Lanka and the Maldives as maritime neighbours.
• Turkey has eight — Greece, Bulgaria, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Iraq and Syria — which is why it is the hinge between Europe, the Caucasus and the Middle East.
• The United States has two — Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. Alaska is separated from the rest of the country by Canada, and the two long borders are the 49th parallel and the Rio Grande.

• Lesotho — completely surrounded by South Africa, and the only country in the world that sits entirely above 1,000 metres.
• Eswatini — wedged between South Africa and Mozambique, just north of Lesotho's latitude.
• San Marino and Vatican City — both entirely inside Italy, both tiny, both easy to miss on a zoomed-out map.
• Monaco — a city-state on the Mediterranean coast, bounded on land by France.
• The Gambia — a thin strip following a river, surrounded by Senegal on every side except the Atlantic.
• Kaliningrad — Russian territory separated from Russia by Lithuania and Belarus, and bordered by Poland and Lithuania.
• Cabinda — an Angolan exclave on the Atlantic coast, cut off from Angola by the mouth of the Congo River.
• Musandam — an Omani exclave on the Strait of Hormuz, separated from the rest of Oman by the United Arab Emirates.
• Baarle-Hertog and Baarle-Nassau — Belgian and Dutch territory interleaved in a patchwork of enclaves on the Dutch border.

There are around forty landlocked countries, and remembering them by region is far quicker than remembering them as a list. In South America it is Bolivia and Paraguay. In Europe, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Andorra, Serbia, North Macedonia, Kosovo, Moldova, Belarus and Vatican City. In Asia: Mongolia, Nepal, Bhutan, Laos, Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. In Africa: Mali, Niger, Chad, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, South Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Ethiopia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Malawi, Lesotho and Eswatini.

Two of them — Uzbekistan and Liechtenstein — are doubly landlocked: every country that borders them is also landlocked. That is a genuinely useful oddity to have in your head.

• Straight lines — the 49th parallel between the United States and Canada, and the ruler-straight borders across the Sahara — Egypt and Libya, Algeria and Mali — are relics of colonial-era surveying.
• Rivers — the Rio Grande between the United States and Mexico, the Amur between Russia and China, the Mekong along parts of Laos and Thailand's borders, the Danube through central Europe.
• Mountains — the Pyrenees between Spain and France, the Alps between Italy, Switzerland and Austria, the Andes between Chile and Argentina, the Himalayas between India, Nepal, Bhutan and China.
• Coastlines as borders — island nations and peninsulas have no land borders at all — Japan, Iceland, Australia, Madagascar, New Zealand and the Philippines all border nobody.

Narrow water connects regions and makes them memorable: the Strait of Gibraltar between Spain and Morocco, the Bosphorus and Dardanelles through Turkey, the Øresund between Denmark and Sweden, the English Channel at Dover, the Bering Strait between Russia and Alaska, the Torres Strait between Australia and Papua New Guinea, the Strait of Malacca between Malaysia and Indonesia, and the Strait of Hormuz between the Gulf and the open ocean.

If borders are not yet the problem — if your pins land on the wrong continent entirely — start with understanding world regions instead, then come back here.