Friend in Prague reportedly winning position on board? (9)
I believe the answer is:
checkmate
'friend' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I don't understand how they can define each other.
'prague reportedly winning position on board?' is the wordplay.
'prague reportedly' becomes 'check' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'winning position on board?' becomes 'mate' (I've seen this before).
'check'+'mate'='CHECKMATE'
'in' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for checkmate that I've seen before include "game's up now" , "Declaration of chess victory" , "Winning call on board" , "Complete victory" , "Where the king can't move" .)