Talks of speed chess finishing early (8)
I believe the answer is:
speeches
'talks' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both related to communication as well as being plural nouns.
Perhaps there's an association between them I don't understand?
'speed chess finishing early' is the wordplay.
'speed' becomes 'spee' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'finishing early' means to remove the last letter (the word finishes earlier than normal).
'chess' with its final letter taken off is 'ches'.
'spee'+'ches'='SPEECHES'
'of' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for speeches that I've seen before include "Formal communications to audiences" , "Formal words to audiences" , "Formal spoken communications" , "Dialogues" , "Orations" .)