I understand that you don't need to create space for bringing the arms towards the belly button but we still need to keep sufficient space between the ball and the pelvis to avoid heel shots.
There has been a lot of discussion about how to chip in terms of steep and shallow angles of attack but not on how to use your legs (pivot) whilst chipping. This video by Greg Rose has been a real eye opener to me. Standing up through the motion of the chip has made chipping so much easier without having to think much about angles of attack.