Man one to be flayed soon (4)
I believe the answer is:
anon
'soon' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'man one to be flayed' is the wordplay.
'man' becomes 'N' (knight, a man in chess).
'one' becomes 'a'.
'to be' indicates anagramming the letters.
'flayed' becomes 'on' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'n'+'a'='na'
'na' anagrammed gives 'an'.
'an'+'on'='ANON'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for anon that I've seen before include "Having no known name" , "Of unknown authorship" , "Well-published writer" , "Soon or presently" , "before long" .)