Games and systematics enchanted Jorge Estrela, and that was certainly due to his father, the scientist and professor Fernando Pinho de Almeida, who devoted himself to Physics and Philosophy. He also inherited from his father his fascination with mathematics, which he transferred to board games, where he could combine the complexity of this discipline to his nature as a painter. He was a science of games enthusiast, having designed and adapted several board games, including some inspired by war episodes in Portuguese history.
The connection between his interest in history, heritage, painting and games allowed him, during the long process of identifying the graffiti from the Monastery of Santa Maria da Vitória, in Batalha, to discover drawings of boards from the ancient game of alquerque.
