Probes knights perhaps surrounding rook (7)

I believe the answer is:

pierces

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'probes' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both to do with contact as well as being verbs in their -s form.
Maybe you can see an association between them that I don't see?

'knights perhaps surrounding rook' is the wordplay.
'knights perhaps' becomes 'pieces' (knight is a kind of piece).
'surrounding' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'rook' becomes 'r' (abbreviation in chess).
'pieces' going around 'r' is 'PIERCES'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for pierces that I've seen before include "Stabs" , "Punctures" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.

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