Knight, with obsession for Listener, in close shave (4,5)
I believe the answer is:
near thing
'close shave' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'knight with obsession for listener' is the wordplay.
'knight' becomes 'n' (chess).
'with' says to put letters next to each other.
'obsession' becomes 'thing' (I've seen this before).
'for' says to put letters next to each other (I've seen this in other clues).
'listener' becomes 'ear' (I've seen this before).
'thing' after 'ear' is 'earthing'.
'n' put next to 'earthing' is 'NEAR THING'.
'in' is the link.
(Other definitions for near thing that I've seen before include "almost an accident" , "Narrow escape, close shave" , "Almost a nasty incident" , "Something that barely avoids failure or disaster" , "Narrow escape, missed by a small margin (4.5)" .)