Flags that everyone mixes up

Some flag questions feel unfair. Not because they are obscure, but because two countries simply fly almost the same piece of cloth. Here are the pairs that trip up even good quizzers, and the details that settle it.

Chad and Romania: the unsolved case

Both are blue-yellow-red tricolours. The only difference is the shade of blue: Romania prescribes a lighter cobalt, Chad's blue is noticeably darker. They have only been near-identical since 1989, when Romania removed the communist emblem from its centre after Ceaușescu fell. In 2004 Chad even asked the UN to look into the matter. Romania's then president Iliescu replied that the tricolour belonged to Romania, full stop. Since then, nothing has changed.

Indonesia, Monaco and Poland

Indonesia and Monaco both show red over white. You can pretty much only tell them apart by their proportions: Indonesia is a stretched 2:3, Monaco a stubby 4:5. Poland simply flips the whole thing, white on top, red below. So when a red-and-white flag shows up in a quiz, the stripe order and the shape of the rectangle decide everything.

Ireland and Ivory Coast

Mirrored twins: Ireland carries green at the hoist, Ivory Coast orange. The Irish flag is also noticeably longer at 1:2. Memory hook: the green isle starts with green.

Australia and New Zealand

Both feature the Union Jack in the corner and the Southern Cross. The stars are the tell: New Zealand has four red stars with white borders. Australia has six white ones, including the big seven-pointed Commonwealth Star below the Union Jack. The mix-up potential was actually one of the arguments in New Zealand's 2015/16 flag referendum. In the end, about 57 percent voted to keep the old flag.

Bonus: Norway, the mother of all flags

Hidden inside Norway's red, white and blue, if you crop the right sections, are the flags of Indonesia, Poland, Malta, Finland, France, the Netherlands and Thailand. No official status, but excellent party knowledge.

Want to practice the pairs? In CountryRush, exactly these lookalikes regularly appear side by side as answer options. At that point, only the details will save you.