Those helpful to a motherless man during strikes? (5)
I believe the answer is:
hints
'those helpful to a motherless' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this definition defines the answer.
'man during strikes?' is the wordplay.
'man' becomes 'N' (knight, a man in chess).
'during' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'strikes?' becomes 'hits' ('hit' can be a synonym of 'strike').
'n' going within 'hits' is 'HINTS'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for hints that I've seen before include "Tips" , "Slight indications" , "Suggestions" .)