Onitama

You lead a master and four students across a five-by-five board. Capture the opposing master, or walk yours onto the temple space where theirs began, and the game is over. Cards decide how pieces move, not the pieces. You hold two move cards, your opponent holds two, and a fifth waits beside the board. Each turn you pick one of your cards, move any pawn in the pattern it shows, then swap that card for the waiting one. The move you just used will soon be in your opponent's hand. Five of sixteen cards are dealt each game, so no two games open the same way. It sits with our abstract duels, and we suggest it to chess players who want a game that ends in fifteen minutes. The rules take two minutes, and it rewards thinking two turns ahead without punishing a beginner too hard.