GG Jónsdóttir

Sigrún Jónsdóttir was raised on a research station her parents ran on Iceland's north coast, took a doctorate in marine biology, and studies sub-Arctic plankton from a small lab near the harbour. She has won the Icelandic Open six times. She crossed the North Atlantic twice on research vessels and lost a watch overboard in a Force 9 gale. She lives outside Reykjavík with two dogs.

Her year runs the wrong way round to everybody else's: active through the summer field season, then dark all winter. She does not look for the best move. She removes the ones that are not it, one at a time, and plays whatever is still standing. She almost never resigns, on the grounds that she has not yet been shown a reason to, and she watches for a long time before she touches anything.