SF: The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks (re-read)

A culture novel, and from a certain point of view Banks' finest (sounds like a kind of ale.) For a change, no time is spent on amusing ship names and interactions, it's all about the one character and some sneaky machinations from Contact / Special Circumstances - and a game. Gripping is certainly the word for it.

We start with a bored player of - you have guessed it - games. He rules. Win's em all but doesn't know where to go with it. Some of the more sneaky folks in Contact, Special Circumstances, have a cunning plan (it turns out) and suggest he goes to play a new game.

Oh, and the commute's a bit of a killer - it's in the SMC, in the empire of Azad. The games called Azad, and the empire literally revolves around it. Our hero gets on OK with it - enough to surprise the locals, but does kinda run out of steam. Then he get's a less than gentle prod to get more of an idea of Azad and hence more of an idea of what the game's about.

You get some echoes of this in The Algebraist, but it's not a patch on this one.