About places and borders
FarAbout covers 197 places: the 193 members of the United Nations, the two UN observer states (the Holy See, which you'll find as Vatican City, and Palestine), plus Kosovo and Taiwan. We call them all countries because that's the everyday word, not to take a side. Our map is based on Natural Earth, and where the UN General Assembly has taken a position on a border, the map follows it. A map can only draw one line, so including a place, naming its capital or drawing a line isn't a statement about who should govern it.
Source: United Nations, Member States. un.org/en/about-us/member-states
Taiwan
Shown as its own country, capital Taipei, with Kinmen drawn as part of it. Typed answers also accept Republic of China, ROC, Chinese Taipei and Formosa.
Source: UN General Assembly resolution 2758 (1971), as listed by the UN Library
Palestine
Shown as its own country, with Gaza drawn as part of it. The capital is given as Ramallah, with no dot on the map, because the capital is disputed.
Source: United Nations, Non-member States (observer state since 2012)
Israel and Jerusalem
Israel's capital is given as Jerusalem, with no dot on the map, and the clues are about West Jerusalem. A capital question never offers Israel and Palestine side by side.
Source: UN News, General Assembly vote on the status of Jerusalem, 21 December 2017
Kosovo
Shown as its own country, capital Pristina.
Source: International Court of Justice, advisory opinion on Kosovo's declaration of independence (2010)
Western Sahara
Not a country in the game. The whole territory is drawn as one grey shape, separate from Morocco, while its status is settled through the UN.
Source: UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO)
Crimea
Drawn as part of Ukraine, following the UN General Assembly. It is not a separate answer, and a tap there counts as Ukraine.
Source: UN News, General Assembly vote on Crimea, 27 March 2014
Golan Heights
Drawn as part of Syria, following the UN General Assembly. It is not a separate answer, and a tap there counts as Syria.
Source: UN General Assembly resolution 79/90, "The occupied Syrian Golan"
Kashmir and Tawang
Kashmir is split along the lines of control, as Natural Earth draws it. Tawang is drawn inside India.
Kinmen
Drawn with Taiwan, which runs it, although it sits just off China's coast.
Names
We show each country's current official name: North Macedonia, Türkiye, Eswatini, Czechia and Myanmar. Older names such as Macedonia, Turkey, Swaziland, Czech Republic and Burma still count as right. For capitals, a former name of the same city counts as right and shows the current one: Kiev becomes Kyiv, and Nur-Sultan becomes Astana.
Source: UN Statistics Division, standard country names (M49)