Crossword Genius

A pawn in the mating game in The Queen, for instance (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

chessman

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'a pawn' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'mating game in the queen for instance' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'game' could be 'chess' (I've seen this before) and 'chess' is located in the answer.
The remaining letters 'man' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

'in the' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for chessman that I've seen before include "Eg, bishop or rook" , "queen, perhaps" , "Eg, bishop, knight" , "that's played on board" , "Playing piece" .)

I've seen this clue in the Irish Times.
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