As the day to commemorate the workers was celebrated last Thursday, three players who had definitely put in their work over that past week, reaped success by capturing the master’s, the challenger’s and the novice section of the 2025 Heroes Day chess festival.

In the top master’s section, it was Cuban grandmaster Luis Aguero Jimenez who showed he was the class of the 6-player event, when he finished a point and a half ahead of international masters Angel Cordoba(Colombia) and Felix Ynojosa (Venezuela). Aguero showed the difference in the given chess titles when he played a deep game to defeat Cordoba in the last round. It was the game that would have decided the winner of the event as if Cordoba had won, he would have leaped frogged Aguero.  However, the grandmaster showed his class and duly won the game to seal the event. The highest placed Bajan in this section was international master Terry Farley who finished fourth.

In the challenger section of the event local player, candidate master Justin Parsons stormed to victory with 7 ½ points from 9 matches. By round 8, after defeating Adam Roachford, Parsons had already secured an outright victory , so his draw against Jeremiah Farley in the last round was only of academic importance.

There was a three-ways tie for second to fourth, with Dr. Philip Corbin placing second on the tie-break, ahead of Mileke Sinckler and Kemp Lynch. These players finished with 6 points. Dr. Corbin’s last round victory against Roachford pushed him out of the prizes.

Sinckler was the top placed finisher in the Under 1700 rating section, just ahead of Savion Little and Jeremiah Farley who both finished on 5 ½ points.

Derick Boyce of Queens College capped a memorable week when he took the novice section of the event with 8 points from his 9 games.

Darren Toppin finished in second place on 7 ½ points, ahead of Aidan Singh on 6 ½ points in third. Singh edged out Jefferson Farley on the tie-break as Jefferson also finished on 6 ½ points.

This year’s Heroes Day chess festival had roughly 50 players contesting in 3 sections and representing 6 countries.