April. For much of North America, winter is coming to an end. There's more daylight. Compared to the winter months, it's an easy month. Well, mostly. In both the US and Canada, income tax returns come due. Kind of spoils the "easy" theme, doesn't it?

On the checker front, though, we'd like to ease into April, even if April isn't completely easy. Here's a speed problem sent to us by regular contributors Lloyd and Josh Gordon of Toronto. It's very much on the easy side. An experienced player will solve it in a few seconds; a beginner might take a little longer, but not a lot. At the Checker Maven we try to provide something for everyone.

Okay, maybe too easy. So now try this one, also based on a position sent by Lloyd and Josh.

Black has just played 1-5, whereas 1-6 or a couple of other moves would have held a narrow draw. Yes, this certainly looks like a White win, but it's a good exercise in application of technique to work out how it's done. Not nearly as easy as our first problem, but straightforward enough.

An easy start to April, or a harder one? You be the judge. Solve the problems and then it's easy enough to click on Read More to check your solutions.

Solutions

First Problem

18-22 25x18 28-24 20x27 32x7 White Wins.

Nothing to it, right?

Second Problem

We give a main-line solution; variations are possible throughout.

18-14 4-8 15-10 8-11 23-18 2-7 10-6 16-19 27-23 3-8 23x16 12x19 6-1 11-16 1-6 7-11 6-10 8-12 10-15 19-23 26x19 16x23 15x8 to a man-up White Win.

That was a little harder, although a relatively straightforward application of patience and technique.

We hope your April is an easy one all throughout!