Onitama

Onitama (2014) is a Chess-like traversal game where moves aren't locked to pieces but to the cards you trade. You play by moving Pawns around a small 5-by-5 grid, tactically choosing a move from your current pair Spirit cards. The double strategy of Pawn position and Spirit card offensive moves, creates ever changing opportunities for attack but also makes it harder to finally pin the opponent's King.

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Like Chess, this is a game of capturing space and pieces, but unlike chess, your pieces' moves are not fixed. Each go, you choose from two Spirit cards, to decide which specific pattern of moves are possible for your Pawn. In a further twist, once you've used a Spirit card, you pass it to your opponent so must keep in mind how they could use it.

As you progress, you and your opponent remove pieces from play by landing on their space and capturing them. This means that your movement choices become more limited and piece selection needs even more care. You win by either capturing your opponent's Onmyo king-like pawn or by moving on to the space where this piece began the game.

It's a highly strategic game, where your choice of move not only affects your pieces and position on the board, but also the moves available to your opponent in future turns. You can use this to your advantage and control their options as well as you own. Like Chess, the web of dependencies becomes complex so that sudden victory or defeat is never far away.

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Our examiner, Rob Prior, first checked Onitama 19 months ago. It was re-examined by Jo Robertson and updated 14 months ago.