Check and Mate

The Squares of the City

John Brunner wrote a book entitled The Squares of the City in which two rivals for control of a South American country, neither willing to see their beloved land ruined by civil war, agree to play a chess match for its control. But the chess match is played with human beings who are manipulated into making "moves" by subliminal persuasion via the state-controlled media. [Subliminal persuasion is supposedly the SF component. Perhaps it is fantasy, not SF.:]

Anyhow, Br...