Bushi shogi (jap.Samurai chess) is a small shogi variant designed by George Dunkel. The game was published in the year 2000 and is played by two players on a board of 1x2 squares with two figures in the form of cubes. It was placed in the category of abstract strategy dice.
At the beginning of the game the board must be clear so that the first player (Black) can drop his samurai on the black square on a side according to his own preference. But pointing the sword to your opponent at your first drop counts as an illegal move. After both players have dropped their samurai the game continues.
On every side of the two black and white samurais are two kanji (jap. Japanese symbol), the samurai and his sword.
A player can move his own samurai by turning and twisting the cube in the following fashion:
If your opponent's sword is pointed at you, it is "check". If this check occurs when your sword was not already pointed at your opponent, your only legal move is to rotate your cube. If your sword was pointed at your opponent, you must instead roll in whichever direction your samurai is facing.
If check occurs when both samurais are facing each and both swords are, too, then the checking player wins.