We are continuing to talk to chess players representing various foreign countries at the Moscow Open 2014, RSSU Cup. Now we are meeting the grandmaster from Poland Mateusz Bartel. It’s significant that the increased interest of the representatives of Poland to our festival this year has become a reason of our reciprocal interest to the players themselves. Mateusz just had to give us a good reason to initiate the talk. And he fulfilled the task brilliantly by advancing to the leading group of the Men’s A tournament after five rounds.

- Mateusz, please accept our congratulations on today’s victory! 4.5 of 5 points is a good result!
- Thank you. I’d love to play more games like that. I had a won position in the third round, but we ended up in a draw. I was a little bit disappointed but still these 4,5 points out of 5 make a good result.

- How many times have you participated in the Moscow Open?
- This is my second time. I was playing at the festival 2 years ago, in 2012. My result was not so good. I lost to Yury Eliseev in the last round and took 30th place, if I remember correctly.

- But you were soon gain your revenge…
- Yes, yes and yes. I cut myself short in the Moscow Open in order to win at the Aeroflot Open. But there is no Aeroflot Open this year, so I can afford to play well at the Moscow Open (laughing).

- Why is the interest in our festival so big with chess players from Poland this year? You and Bartosz Socko in the A tournament, Kamil Dragun with the student grandmasters…
- A lot of us have come, and there could have been even more us us. Kamil Miton was also included on the startup, but he couldn’t make it at the very last moment. The tournament is very strong, a lot of good grandmaster players are playing here. I wish we had more tournaments like this. At the moment I have two options: either the Gibraltar Open or Moscow. I didn’t like it too much at the Gibraltar Open last year and I was playing bad. That’s why I have decided to come to Moscow this time. I feel very good in Russia.

- How often have you visited us?
- I think more than 10 times. I've played in Khanty-Mansiysk, Moscow, St. Petersburg…

- When did you learn Russian?
- As a young man I had a Russian coach, Viktor Zhelyandinov (renowned Coach of Ukraine). He speaks only Russian, so I didn’t have any choice. I had to learn your language.

- Is somebody coaching you now?
- Now it happens very seldom. I’m working with my colleagues from Poland. Sometimes we have training camps, sometimes we just meet somewhere.

- How is the National Team of Poland doing?
- We have a great Women’s team that played very successfully at the European Championship last year. Men are playing not so well. I played well at the European Championship, but the rest of the team not so well. Two years ago I blew it at the Olympiad in Istanbul. I lost the ast four games, but the team was playing well. We ended up taking only 12th place just because of me. I can’t find the common ground with the team (laughing).

- Maybe it’s time to learn to train with the Women’s National Team?
- I had short training sessions with Monika Socko and Ivetta Reilich. Unfortunately we can’t meet very often, all of us don’t have so much time… Of course that doesn’t apply to Bartosz Socko. He has the chance to train with Monika, she is his wife.

- What other priorities besides chess do you have in your life?
- Renovation. Last year I finally purchased a flat. The Aeroflot-2013 prize money became part of the payment. And now my wife and I are in the process of the renovation, we are buying everything required… If to be more precise I’m just giving the money and my wife is deciding what to buy and where it should be located (laughing again).

- Mateusz, I know for certain period of time you were working as a journalist, so we're like colleagues. How is your Mat chess magazine doing?
- I signed over all the rights for the magazine to the Chess Federation of Poland, as I have decided that I don’t have enough time to fulfill my obligations 100%. However, I’m still the editor-in-chief of the magazine. The federation is of the opinion that it is cool (laughing again). I’m of course writing some articles but not as often as I used to. So I can admit that we are still colleagues, but just a little bit.

- Are you following our website news?
- Yes, I’m reading. But I get tired very quickly when I’m reading in Russian.

- We have an English version of the site!
- Oh! That’s great. Now I will check the site more often and will wait for the appearance of our talk!