Chess champion's short story (3)

I believe the answer is:

tal

'chess champion's' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'short story' is the wordplay.
'short' means to remove the last letter.
'story' becomes 'tale' (synonyms).
'tale' with its last letter removed is 'TAL'.

(Other definitions for tal that I've seen before include "Chess champion" , "Farlow, jazz guitarist" .)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.

Want a hint initially instead of a full solution? Install my app