The craft of the player (12)
I believe the answer is:
gamesmanship
'the craft' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
I don't understand how the rest of the clue works.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for gamesmanship that I've seen before include "Art of defeating opponents through psychology" , "Art of scoring points" , "Competitive guile" , "Art of winning by various ploys and tactics" , "winning strategy" .)