Man on board gets wife into god (4)
I believe the answer is:
pawn
'man on board' is the definition.
(chess)
'wife into god' is the wordplay.
'wife' becomes 'w'.
'into' is an insertion indicator.
'god' becomes 'pan' (Pan is an example**).
'w' inserted inside 'pan' is 'PAWN'.
'gets' is the link.
(Other definitions for pawn that I've seen before include "A dupe; hock" , "Person one used" , "Insignificant player" , "Minor chess piece" , "Lowest ranking chessman" .)