With the traditional Mother's Day celebration just around the corner, you'll need the services of Speedy Delivery to get your flowers there on time! Similarly, you'll need to be pretty speedy to beat our relentless time clock on this month's pair of speed problems.

The first one is quite easy. The second one requires fast thinking and good visualization. We'll give you 15 seconds on the first one and a full minute (!) on the second. Click on the links below to show the problems and start the clock.

Whether or not you can deliver the solutions, clicking on Read More will speedily show you how it's done.

May 2006 Speed Problem 1 (easy)

May 2006 Speed Problem 2 (medium)

And now here's an off-the-wall trivia question: who played the character of Mr. McFeely (the Speedy Delivery man) on the celebrated Mr. Rogers Neighborhood television show? There's a reason why we ask.

Solutions

Problem 1 23-18 14-23--A 21-17 13-22 25-2. White Wins.

A---The alternate capture 15-22 of course loses at once to 25-9.

Problem 2 31-26 23-30 2-6 30-21 6-24 12-19 24-13. White Wins.

Answer to trivia question: Mr. McFeely was played by none other than David Newell, who, alas, is not related in any way to your Checker Maven editor.