Botched rescue involves knight in condemnation (7)
I believe the answer is:
censure
'condemnation' is the definition.
(censure is a kind of condemnation)
'botched rescue involves knight' is the wordplay.
'botched' indicates anagramming the letters.
'involves' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'knight' becomes 'n' (chess).
'rescue' with letters rearranged gives 'cesure'.
'cesure' enclosing 'n' is 'CENSURE'.
'in' is the link.
(Other definitions for censure that I've seen before include "Strong criticism or condemnation" , "Carpet" , "Blame or rebuke" , "Formal disapproval" , "Harsh criticism or disapproval" .)