Players went ahead and exchanged pieces (7)
I believe the answer is:
castled
'exchanged pieces' is the definition.
(chess term)
'players went ahead' is the wordplay.
'players' becomes 'cast' (I've seen this before).
'went ahead' becomes 'led' (I've seen this before).
'cast'+'led'='CASTLED'
'and' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for castled that I've seen before include "have moved on board" , "Made a chess move" , "defensive move" , "made move in game" , "Performed chess move" .)