Embroil knight in elegant twists (8)
I believe the answer is:
entangle
'embroil' is the definition.
(entangling is a kind of embroiling)
'knight in elegant twists' is the wordplay.
'knight' becomes 'N' (chess abbreviation).
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'twists' indicates an anagram (I've seen 'twisted' mean this).
'elegant' with letters rearranged gives 'entagle'.
'n' put into 'entagle' is 'ENTANGLE'.
(Other definitions for entangle that I've seen before include "Confuse" , "Snare" , "Create confusion" , "Ensnare" , "catch" .)