Stood as candidate over ruler’s position (7)
I believe the answer is:
ranking
'position' is the definition.
(ranking is a kind of position)
'stood as candidate over ruler's' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'stood' could be 'ran' (both can mean ran for office) and 'ran' is found in the answer.
'as' could be 'in' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'in' is located in the answer.
'ruler' could be 'k' (abbreviation for king in chess) and 'k' is found in the answer.
A single letter 'g' remains which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for ranking that I've seen before include "Classification" , "Position in a hierarchy" , "position on graded scale" , "Grading" , "Assigning a position to" .)