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A warning to those who don't play the game. If you've identified the theme and then googled it, you'll have found a wikipedia page. On that page is a diagram, which is an intermediate representation : the setter has used a later (though recognisable) representation of the same game.

Meursault - could you help with 14ac and 24dn please? Luckily I guessed the game once I saw the 8 x 8 square where the extra wordplay letters were used.

Hi Unclued. I found 14 awkward also, I was side-tracked by the K provided by 5. In fact there is a clash in the first cell, K/S, the entry is SELLS, provided by SE(-I)L(+L)S.
24 is POE(-A)M (ave Maria). Again there is a clash in the first letter of the entry, this time E/P

Thanks Meursault. I just need to understand why 4dn is CASE and I'm finished.

I can't help with the parsing of 4, but the CA is confirmed by across entries and the SE match the rejected letters requirements. There was another entry, 9, which I gave up trying to parse also - the entry was obviously correct...

It's a shame that we can't distinguish between black and white men in the thematic area!
Seasons greetings to all fellow Listener contributors on this site.

CASE comes from EUCLASE with EU removed and L as the extra letter.

The best I can come up with for 9 is SE(t) inside NOUP, but that means interpreting 'wings' as a container indication, and that strikes me as a touch dubious, though there is one phrase in Chambers that might justify it.

Unclued, EUCLASE is a silicate, and L the extra letter.
Meursault, NOUP is an obsolete Shetland word for a steep headland, around SE(T).

A terrific puzzle, and challenging to work out all the clashes before looking at the diagram. Merry Christmas all

Sorry for parroting you, Dryden!

Thanks for the explanations on EUCLASE and NOUP. I didn't know the former, but do now remember seeing the latter.

I did wonder whether the setter could have asked the solver to distinguish between the 25 filled cells remaining in the thematic area. The solver is likely to need to check on the history of the game anyway.
Perhaps that would have given rise to confusion seeing that half the cells also needed to be shaded. Even so, it was a good puzzle, and indirectly introduced me to the word 'zugzwang.'

Season's greetings to all contributors.