Game on as strategic board game world championships are held in Sheffield

Mind Sports Olympiad finalists, Gold - Richard Ratcliffe (Sheffield), Silver - Jonathan Arnott (Sheffield), Bronze - Dimitros Kosmopoulos (Greece)

Stratego – which is described as a “combination of chess, poker and memory” games – has attracted teams to the Hilton hotel in Sheffield this weekend.

The game was originally based on French game L’Attaque and features a Napoleonic war theme.

Organiser Jonathan Arnott said: "We went down to the Treehouse board game cafe in Sheffield and did a couple of training sessions teaching people the basics of the game. "It's great to have the championships in the UK again, the last time was in 2011 and we've had a little bit of a daunting experience with it because mainly 95 per cent has been me and Richard Ratcliffe organising the whole thing.”

The aim of Stratego is to find your opponents’ flag – key skills in winning are bluffing, and thinking strategically.

The game, which is generally more popular outside of the UK, has attracted players from seven different nations including the Netherlands and Greece to Sheffield.

Stratego also has a community of about 20,000 online players who access the game at Stratego.com.

Jonathan added: “One of the hopes for the future is that we get enough American players so that we can justify holding it in the USA.”

The world championships run until Sunday, August 25.