Francesco Salerno is an Italian chemist who used to play chess until he came to London where he came across the world of strategy games. It takes a lot to drag someone from chess, but when he started to play other strategy games he found them irresistible. He had stumbled into the world of abstract strategy games. He became involved in game groups around London and developed a particular fascination with Hive, a boardless game played with hexagonal pieces, where the pieces create the board. Wishing to spread his love of strategy games more widely, he set up the “Abstract Strategy Games: History, Maths and Game Design” course at Imperial College London. This course gives an insight into the theory of many strategy games and an opportunity to play them under supervision.

John Foley and Brigitta Peszleg attended Francesco’s course out of curiosity because they are also deeply engaged with strategy games from an educational perspective. John and Brigitta work at ChessPlus and have developed a training course, “Chess and Strategy Games in the Classroom“, which has been running successfully since 2021 among educators who want to add variety to their teaching. They have many years of involvement in teaching chess and other strategy games in schools that have been proven popular with children because they are fun and provide new playing experiences.

John had also devised the teacher training methodology for Chess in Schools and Communities in the UK and works on combining chess and mathematics. He was part of two European Erasmus+ projects: Chess and Mathematics in Primary Schools and 8×8 Strategy Games for the Classroom. 

After John and Brigitta met Francesco, there was an immediate bonding of the strategy games enthusiast. They decided that more people should be aware of strategy games and came up with the idea to spread their joy by setting up the first Strategy Games Festival in London. They have put together a programme which reflects their experience regarding the best games to learn if you want to socialise with other people, or to teach children.

Over the last decade, there has been an explosion of interest in table-top games. Games cafes have sprouted up around the country. Most of these games have an element of luck through dice or cards.  Strategy games have no element of chance. It is one person against another purely on the basis who can better solve the problems on the table. It has been said that all humans are natural game players – we joyfully play games from an early age.  

“We want to bring back the element of pure play and joy into people’s lives.”