Mateusz Bartel is a Polish

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

 chess

Chess

Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...

 player who holds the title of International Grandmaster

International Grandmaster

The title Grandmaster is awarded to strong chess players by the world chess organization FIDE. Apart from World Champion, Grandmaster is the highest title a chess player can attain....

 (GM). He won the under-18 European championship in 2003.

Bartel learned to play the game at age 5-6 when he and his brother were at home ill with chickenpox

Chickenpox

Chickenpox or chicken pox is a highly contagious illness caused by primary infection with varicella zoster virus . It usually starts with vesicular skin rash mainly on the body and head rather than at the periphery and becomes itchy, raw pockmarks, which mostly heal without scarring...

. Both Mateusz and his brother entered the chess club Polonia Warsaw.

Bartel represented his country in the Chess Olympiad

Chess Olympiad

The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams from all over the world compete against each other. The event is organised by FIDE, which selects the host nation.-Birth of the Olympiad:The first Olympiad was unofficial...

 in 2006, 2008 and 2010. In the Turin 2006 Olympiad

37th Chess Olympiad

The 37th Chess Olympiad, comprising an open and women's tournament and the general assembly of the Fédération Internationale des Échecs , took place between 20 May and 6 June 2006, in Turin, Italy.-Open tournament:...

 he played fourth board, scoring 5/10 (+3 =4 -3). In the Dresden 2008 Olympiad

38th Chess Olympiad

The 38th Chess Olympiad, organized by the Fédération Internationale des Échecs and comprising an open and women's tournament, as well as several events designed to promote the game of chess, took place between 12–25 November 2008, in Dresden, Germany and was won by Armenia.The 2010 Olympiad is...

, Bartel scored 4/7 (+3 =2 -2) as the team's third board. In the 2010 Khanty-Mansiysk Olympiad

38th Chess Olympiad

The 38th Chess Olympiad, organized by the Fédération Internationale des Échecs and comprising an open and women's tournament, as well as several events designed to promote the game of chess, took place between 12–25 November 2008, in Dresden, Germany and was won by Armenia.The 2010 Olympiad is...

 he played on the fifth board scoring 7 points out of 9 games (+6 =2 -1) and got a silver medal for individual result on his board.

In 2007, he tied for 1st-6th with Vitali Golod

Vitali Golod

Vitali Golod is a Soviet–Israeli chess grandmaster.As of April 2007, his Elo rating was 2597, making him the # 7 player in Israel and the 152nd-highest rated player in the world. It is his peak rating so far.-Chess career:...

, Zahar Efimenko

Zahar Efimenko

Zahar Efimenko is a Ukrainian chess player. He has been a grandmaster since 2002.-Chess career:In 1999 Efimenko won the U-14 World Youth Chess Championship in Oropesa del Mar, Spain. In the same year he was a member of the Ukrainian national youth team, which won the U-16 Chess Olympiad in Artek,...

, Yuri Yakovich

Yuri Yakovich

Yuri Yakovich is a Russian chess Grandmaster . He was a member of the silver medal winning Russian team at the 1997 European Team Chess Championship....

, Michael Roiz

Michael Roiz

Michael Roiz is an Israeli chess Grandmaster.He learned to play chess at the age of 7. At the age of 9, he finished 2nd in the national championship under-10 category...

 and Mikhail Kobalia

Mikhail Kobalia

Mikhail Kobalia is a Russian chess Grandmaster .In 1994 he won European Youth Chess Championship in Guarapuava. In 2001 was clear first in the Chigorin Memorial at St. Petersburg. In 2005 came first in the Masters Open Tournament in Biel...

 in the 16th Monarch Assurance Isle of Man

Isle of Man

The Isle of Man , otherwise known simply as Mann , is a self-governing British Crown Dependency, located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, within the British Isles. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who holds the title of Lord of Mann. The Lord of Mann is...

 International tournament.

He won the Polish Chess Championship

Polish Chess Championship

Individual Polish Chess Championship is the most important Polish chess tournament, aiming at selecting the best chess players in Poland. Based on the results of the tournament , the Polish Chess Federation selects the national and subsequently the olympiad team.The first men's championship took...

in 2006, 2010 and 2011.