During the last week, the word ‘Evergreen’ trended for all the wrong reasons. Suez Canal, one of the key shipping canals in the world was blocked by a large vessel with the word ‘Evergreen’ written, in massive letters, on the side of it. For us chess players however, the word ‘Evergreen’ tends to evoke sensations of something far more pleasant, but more on that later. The great Yuri Averbakh is a great advocate of combining the scientific and artistic approaches to chess apprehension. He loves to represent the chessboard as theatre, while using masterfully composed chess problems to show typical themes such as drama, tragedy and comedy. But is it possible to depict the aforementioned blockade on a chessboard? Suez Canal obstruction on a chessboard The Suez Canal is very important because it provides the shortest sea link between Asia and Europe. The alternative is to take a long detour round the southern tip of South Africa, a time- consuming option which serves as a reminder as to why the Suez Canal was built in the first place. To reenact the situation, we use a chess problem composed by Peter Boll and Arpad Rusz in 2008. The first move 1.d4+ is fairly obvious. Black must respond with 1...Ne4 (After 1...Kg4, white wins with 2.dxc5 Kf3 3.Kc2 Kxf2 4.Kd3 Bd5 5.e4 Bc6 6.e5), allowing the knight to be pinned. White attacks the hapless knight with  2.f3 This is where things get interesting. The natural 2...Bd5 leads to a winning ending for white after 3.fxe4+ Bxe4 4. Bxe4+ Kxe4 5. Kc2. So black plays 2...Bb3+ first to drive the white king away. After 3.Ke1 (3.Bc2 b1=Q+), black can now play 3...Bd5. This brings us to the key position that resembles the Suez Canal debacle. White will win the ending (starting with fxe4) if his king can capture the black pawn. The problem is the black forces stuck in the centre of the board are creating a mighty blockade along the d-file that prevents the white king from crossing the ‘canal’. (4.Kd1 Bb3+ ; 4.Ke2 Bc4+) The whole black contingent in the middle of the board represents the vessel stuck in the Suez Canal. Their movements are limited. The knight is pinned and helpless. The king cannot move without allowing fxe4. The bishop can move, but has to guard the e4 square as well as certain entry points of the white king. White can’t afford to play fxe4 as long as this status quo is maintained (sinking or destroying the vessel was never an option).So white is forced to ‘travel around the african continent’ reach the b2 pawn as indicated in the previous diagram. This takes sixteen further moves, but after capturing the black pawn on b2, white can finally win with 20.fxe4. Chess pranks The chess community loves their april 1st. This year, even some of the more experienced players were fooled by an article on chess.com about a major change in chess rules with all types of draws being abolished. Agadmator, the most popular chess youtuber in the world, ran a fake story about the World Champion Magnus Carlsen retiring from the game after being devastated by a crushing loss. Coincidentally, the game in question was adapted from a historical brilliancy played by Adolf Anderssen dubbed “The Evergreen Game”. White, having already sacrificed a piece, played the amazing 19.Rad1! here, allowing 19...Qxf3. What followed was evergreen indeed. 20.Rxe7+ Nxe7 21.Qxd7+! Kxd7 22.Bf5+ Ke8 (Kc6 23.Bd7#) 23.Bd7+ Kf8 24.Bxe7# Can’t really blame black for contemplating retirement, can we?