The Premise and Standings
Each week we’ll face off in a best of three series playing a different board game from our collection. The winner claims the moniker of C&C Clash Champ for the week. The loser proves to be a pawn in the grander scheme of gaming. The lesser player also gets to choose the game for the next week.
We will maintain a record of wins and losses throughout the year to see who finishes 2022 as the ultimate board game champ in our household.
Our current C&C Champion is Confetti after winning last week’s Kill Dr. Lucky duel.
Pre-Clash Current Standings:
- Weekly Winner: 21 Chaos – 24 Confetti
- Individual game wins: 65 Chaos – 61 Confetti
After losing last week, Chaos has chosen Chess.
The Game – Chess
As one of the oldest board games in the world, Chess is a classic game which most people are at least somewhat familiar with. Chess is a two-person, open-information strategy game has players battling their armies of sixteen pieces each on an 8×8 grid.
The armies are made up of six unique pieces which all have their own movement and play rules. These pieces are the pawn, knight, rook, bishop, queen, and king. Players will use their pieces to eliminate the other player’s pieces by moving one of their own pieces into a space currently occupied by the opponent.
A player claims victory when they have trapped their opponent’s king in a position that allows no escape from elimination: Checkmate.
Chess is known as an easy enough game to learn, but an extremely difficult one to master.
Since there is enough information on chess out there and due to its complex nature, we’re going to skip over explaining all the rules here. Just know that pieces clash, pieces fall off the board, and one king must fall.
It’s a Chaos and Confetti Chess Clash! Who will prove to be a grandmaster?
Chaos’ Pre-Clash Thoughts:
I’ll admit that this week’s game may be a little more self serving than others. Confetti feels super disadvantaged by chess because she has never truly mastered the game. Not that I have. I simply have a bit more experience with it. With that said, it has still been years since I played chess with any regularity and even then I was just okay. Here’s hoping I do have the advantage though because I need to rack up another string of wins or this year’s overall champ is going to get decided very quickly.
Confetti’s Pre-Clash Thoughts:
Chaos picked a game I don’t know how to play and I don’t super feel motivated to learn because it’s so spatial. I’m already chalking this up to a loss, but I’ll do my best.
Game 1 –
As white, Confetti received the first move of the game. It quickly became clear that her confidence level going into this clash was extremely low. She made her moves quickly and tended to react more to what Chaos was doing than setting up any long term plans.
Chaos enjoyed jumping back into chess, but had to admit to himself he was a bit rusty. He tried to anticipate what Confetti might do and possibly set a trap or two. The problem was that Confetti’s play style was a bit erratic and unpredictable.
It didn’t take long for Chaos to start sweeping Confetti’s pieces. She got a few returns but her pieces were leaving the board at a much quicker pace. Soon, she had her king standing alone against Chaos’ king, knight, four pawns, two rooks, a bishop, and a queen.
Confetti’s king scurried to a corner, but finally found himself boxed in and checkmated.
Game 1 Winner: Chaos
Game 2 –
Chaos began the second game. He went in feeling even more confident.
Confetti quickly began mirroring Chaos’ opening pawns. A wall of zigzagging pawns caused a bit of an impasse between the two players. Chaos slowly began to break his way through while Confetti did her best to defend her space. Her moves became a bit more deliberate and she began to pick off a few of Chaos’ pieces as they made their way through her army.
Chaos never felt the endgame was in doubt, but he did realize he would have to work for it a bit more. He finally broke through half of Confetti’s pawn wall, at the cost of a few of his own pieces, and happily started wiping the board of Confetti’s forces.
Soon the unthinkable happened and the sure finale did not come to pass. Chaos locked down Confetti without actually checking her. Confetti’s pawns were all stuck on other pawns. Her king sat blocked in by rooks, a bishop, and a knight. During her turn, Confetti had no legal moves to make. She didn’t know what to do.
Chaos knew what this meant though. In his ego-filled desire to once again wipe out all of Confetti’s pieces he shot himself in the foot. With no legal moves for Confetti to make, the game ended in a draw.
This wasn’t the miracle win that Confetti hoped for, but it still felt like a victory to her. Chaos couldn’t believe what he did to himself.
Game 2 Winner: Draw
Game 3:
Confetti started the final game, which would prove to be her best one yet, at least in terms of destroying Chaos’ forces. In the first game, she took six of Chao’s pieces, and in the second, she took seven. This time around, Confetti would claim eleven.
Again, Chaos saw Confetti’s abilities growing. She put up a better fight, didn’t sacrifice pieces so needlessly, and had a better mastery of what she ought to be doing. A seed of doubt crept into Chaos, but he refused to let it take root. He leaned into Confetti’s assault of his forces, but made sure that the skirmish would come out in his favor in the end, even if both sides had to lose pieces along the way.
Soon, Chaos eliminated all of Confetti’s pieces but one. More importantly, he made sure to never give her no options. He would not settle for another draw. Using his rooks, she slowly backed Confetti up until she hit her back boundary. Then, he dove in for check and mate.
Chaos’ king stayed in place, discussing with his bishop just how good it felt to win.
Game 3 Winner: Chaos
Your Winner and NEW C&C Clash Champion: Chaos!
Chaos’ Post-Clash Thoughts:
I applaud Confetti for her efforts. The games were a bit one-sided, but she showed a lot of improvement and growth during the series. Again, I’m far from a grandmaster, so I bet with some time she would pull out some wins.
Thankfully, she won’t get that time and it’s on to the next clash!
Confetti’s Post-Clash Thoughts:
This went about how I expected it to go, but that Draw sure feels like a personal victory. I’ll take it!
New Standings:
Post-Clash Standings:
- Weekly Winner: 22 Chaos – 24 Confetti
- Individual game wins: 67 Chaos – 61 Confetti – 1 Draw
Next Week: Biblios
Chaos & Confetti 