I came across Onitama last year and immediately fell in love with it. I don't think it has quite the depth or complexity of chess, which if I'm honest is actually a bit too much for me, and obviously chess will always have the advantage of its long history. I'd love to know what really good chess players make of it though.
One thing I personally prefer about it is that the movements available each time you play are dealt out of a shuffled deck so you're never likely to gain much advantage by studying book openings, as they'll always be different. With the much more compact 5x5 board it's almost straight into a mid-game/ end-game equivalent. You may often only be 3 or 4 moves away from a potential victory but forcing moves are harder to find because there aren't the board-length moves that chess has and each time you make a move you pass that movement card to be picked up by the other player after their next turn, so it's hard to pin other pieces in place, and it gives moves a back and forth feel almost like a dance. This added layer of complexity of keeping track of who will have which movement cards means that even with few pieces on a small board it offers a real challenge when it comes to thinking several moves ahead.
There are two victory conditions, first by capturing your opponent's Master piece, second by getting your Master to the opposite temple square. This gives a similar feel to pawn races in chess and means there's always a balance between attack and defend. Games tend only to last about 10 minutes but there's definitely time for some strategy that will need to be adapted each time depending on which movement cards are dealt into the game, always keeping it fresh.
It's impossible to say whether it will become popular enough to stand the test of time like chess, but I hope it does. It's a beautifully designed game, elegant and simple to understand yet with potential for quite complex tactics, and each game seems to tell its own little story. I once had a game (pic below) where the final moves were a Goose and a Rooster beating a Tiger and a Dragon. For anyone who enjoys chess puzzles and wants to try something new, or for something to play with people less experienced with chess, I'd highly recommend it.
Has anyone heard about Onitama? It is a board game, a chess like one. I heard from someone that this game is being considered the "21º Century Chess". I haven't played yet, but an allegation of this size seems a little exaggerated for me. I want some impressions from chess community about this game, especially if this game have the same tactical and strategical potential that chess have. If anyone have played, please, tell us your impressions about it.
You can read more about Onitama here: https://medium.com/tabletop-tribe/review-why-onitama-replaced-chess-for-me-afa5335ab37e