3268: Offside

2026-07-10T18:51:43Z

198.73.70.136: Making the transcript more specific (and also more correct, e.g. it's the last move that's highlighted, not just the square of the rook) and adding some trivia

{{comic
| number = 3268
| date = July 6, 2026
| title = Offside
| image = offside_2x.png
| imagesize = 308x349px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = The arbiter gave my knight a red card for capturing with cleats up :(
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was found after a bishop received a yellow card. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
The comic features a standard chessboard with a game in progress. On it is a horizontal dashed red line equipped with a red-and-yellow checkered flag on the right. This represents the implementation of the {{w|Offside (association football)|offside rule}} of {{w|association football}} (soccer) in a chess match.

In soccer, an attacking player cannot simply wait right next to the opponent's goal for a pass; they must not be beyond the opponent's defensive line when the ball is kicked to them. On replays, this is often illustrated by showing a line, level with the last defender, superimposed across the pitch. {{w|Assistant referee (association football)|Assistant referees}} (or 'linesmen') run along the sidelines to monitor this boundary. When an attacking player receives the ball having been in an offside position, the official on the sidelines raises a flag (which is often checkered red-and-yellow) to signal a violation to the head referee.

The complexity of the off-side rule is notorious (for ''not entirely'' deserved reasons), as it is not an actual offence for a player to ''be'' in an off-side position, and only becomes so when they are subsequently involved in active play (typically, this is upon being passed the ball, but may also be judged to include distracting/obscuring the goalkeeper or other activities more or less loosely at the discretion of the referee). Its original purpose was to deter certain undesirable playing styles, such as "goal hanging", that were considered unsporting, but it adds several complications to how the referee (aided or not by supporting linesmen, or even {{w|Video assistant referee|VAR}}) has to control the match, and players/supporters may have their own interpretations.

The basic premise is that when a ball is kicked forward to an attacker (excepting when that contact is certain other penalty kicks or throw-ins), they must have been 'on-side' ''at the time of that last touch'', regardless of whether they then run beyond the appropriate defender (or the defender runs the opposite way past the attacker) to actually take posession of the ball and then commence to score a goal. A player who ''was'' off-side may become on-side between the original start of the pass and also avoid the issue. Most of the tactics (and potential counter-tactics by the team not in possession) rely upon careful timing and balancing of such player positioning to create/remove such opportunities to be in a position to score a goal, or at least be closer to doing so.  The result of an off-side violation is the resetting of play to where the ball was at the time, disallowing any goal scored following that point and an (indirect) free kick given to the defenders. But it does not otherwise require the offending player(s) to be 'carded' (officially reprimanded, on or off the field).

In this chess adaptation, Randall draws this "offside line" horizontally across the board, tracking the position of Black's least advanced pawns (the 'last defender'). The flag on the dashed line indicates that a linesman has flagged the match. The White Rook moved deep into Black's territory (indicated by the yellow highlighting on the square) to position itself to put the Black King in what would normally be {{w|checkmate}}. However, because the rook crossed the dashed offside line ahead of the defensive line of black pieces, the move was disallowed. The offside line does not coincide with the border between the squares, but apparently depends on the exact position of the pawns. Thus in some situations an "offside checkmate" could be avoided by sloppily placed pieces.

The title text furthers the soccer reference. In association football, a “cleats up” tackle occurs when a player lunges into a challenge with the bottom of their boots (typically featuring hard studs, for better traction on the grassy/muddy pitch) dangerously exposed and liable to injure the opposing player, intentionally or not. This play should result in the referee issuing an immediate {{w|Penalty card#Association football 2|red card}}. In chess, an arbiter is the referee of a tournament. The title text implies that the player’s knight made an aggressive leap to capture a piece, forcing the arbiter to eject the piece. Of course, in chess, the whole point of such a move is to take out the opponent's piece, unlike in soccer, where the objective should be to win the ball.

The comic's publication coincides with the {{w|2026 FIFA World Cup}}. It is part of a series of sports-themed comics Randall released during the tournament season, including [[3260: Messi]] and [[3262: Sports Commentary]]. Randall previously included the offside rule in [[2705: Spacetime Soccer]].

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
:[A single-panel comic showing a standard 8 by 8 chessboard, with the position 4Rk2/8/2p2p2/1p2PNbB/B2pn2n/1Q1P4/r4P2/3K4 b, with the most recent move of the white rook from e7 to e8 highlighted in yellow. The black king is trapped on f8 by the white rook on e8, white knight on f5, and white bishop on h5. A horizontal, dashed red line cuts across the chessboard above the sixth rank, where the least advanced black pawns are. On the right-hand side of this line, past the edge of the board, is a red-and-yellow checkered assistant referee's flag.]
:[Caption below panel:]
:I thought I had checkmate, but I didn't realize my rook was offside.

==Trivia==
The highlighted move of the white rook shows that it was already offside before it moved, because it started out on e7, which is still past the red line.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Chess]]
[[Category:Soccer]]

Talk:3268: Offside

2026-07-10T18:34:08Z

198.73.70.136: Noticed an unusual coincidence

Finally the site's back! [[User:GSLikesCats307|GSLikesCats307]] ([[User talk:GSLikesCats307|talk]]) 09:36, 10 July 2026 (UTC)

"Cleats"? Them's studs, my guy. [[User:Yorkshire Pudding|Yorkshire Pudding]] ([[User talk:Yorkshire Pudding|talk]]) 12:12, 10 July 2026 (UTC)
:Yeah, I know what you mean. "Cleats", to me, suggests rows of linear (mostly transverse) protusions, like on the bottom of walking boots/shoes (though modern ones of those also go for 'studded' elements), rather than clumps of spikes/truncated-spikes.
:But I suspect we're separated-by-a-common-language, again, with the 'Merkin terminology being otherwise. [[Special:Contributions/82.132.236.148|82.132.236.148]] 14:22, 10 July 2026 (UTC)

Could this be related to [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucGhD2hC_6s "Chess But You Can't Go Offside" by iwantcheckmate], which came out a couple days before the comic? They seem closely related in theme and time, in a way I haven't seen anywhere else, but at the same point they also seem to have slightly different interpretations of the offside rule (this comic seems to interpret it by the rank of defenders, while the video interprets it by board distance to the nearest defender). [[Special:Contributions/198.73.70.136|198.73.70.136]] 18:34, 10 July 2026 (UTC)

explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

3268: Offside

Talk:3268: Offside