A five-time Chilean women’s chess champion, Damaris Abarca González has spent her career proving chess can hold a bigger board than the one in front of her. She’s represented Chile at nine Chess Olympiads, served as president of the Chess Federation of Chile, and holds the title of FIDE Arbiter.

Beyond the board, she was elected to Chile’s Constitutional Convention, helping shape her country’s new constitution, and has championed women’s chess movements throughout South America. She has also faced down lupus, playing on through a battle few opponents ever knew she was fighting. At the Polar Chess Expedition, Damaris carries South America to the bottom of the world, bringing with her a story where chess and public service are two sides of the same fight.