A Friday afternoon chess match between a candidate master and a Lubavitcher bochur on mivtzoim ended with a Yid putting on tefillin for the first time, after months of declining the offer. The unexpected encounter reignited the bochur’s dream of one day opening a chess-themed Chabad House.

Born in Norway to Russian immigrant parents, Noam Vitenberg grew up in a home where Yiddishkeit was present, though they were not observant. But Chess was observed religiously: one of his grandfathers was a candidate master, while the other held the rank just below it. His father was once among the top checkers players in the Soviet Union.

By age thirteen, Noam was the Norwegian champion in his age group and represented his country at the European Youth Championships. At fourteen, he won the Norwegian Under-20 championship, and at fifteen he earned the FIDE Master title.

At eighteen, while studying in Ithaca, New York, Noam walked into the local Chabad House and challenged the shliach to prove that Yiddishkeit was true. “I didn’t expect to find real answers,” Noam told Anash.org. “But every week I kept coming back for more.”

Months of learning followed, and before long Noam became frum.

He went on to learn in Yeshiva Temimei Derech in Tzfas and received semicha, all while holding onto an idea that had been forming in his mind: a chess-themed Chabad House that could use the game to open doors to yiddishkeit.

Noam later went through several hard months with competitive chess. In one tournament in particular, he found himself outplaying his opponents for much of the game, only to collapse and lose late on. “It was as if someone had put a curse on me,” he told Anash.org. “That someone being myself.”

Those months took a heavy toll. “To say I was sad would be an understatement,” he says. “I was destroyed.” He fell into a deep depression over it, abandoned chess completely, and told himself he never wanted to play again. The dream of a chess Chabad House seemed to disappear with it.

Eventually, Noam enrolled in the Lubavitcher yeshivah in his hometown of Petach Tikva. Yeshivas Ba’avur Dovid Avdecha provides post-shlichus bochurim with a serious framework for growth in Torah, Chassidus, and personal development. Led by Rabbi Chaim Hillel Raskin, the yeshivah combines halacha and semicha studies with meaningful community involvement, as bochurim take part in mivtzoim, chavrusos, and shiurim.

Every Friday, he and a fellow bochur, Shalom, would go out on mivtzoim, offering people the opportunity to put on tefillin.

One regular on their route was Michael Polyakov, a former chess candidate master from Minsk who had moved to Eretz Yisroel seventeen years earlier. Each week, Michael politely declined their offer.

Several months ago, while Shalom was speaking with Michael, an idea came up: a chess match. If Noam won, Michael would put on tefillin.

Noam wasn’t eager. “I did not want to play chess at all, whatsoever,” he told anash.org. “Chess had caused me so much heartache that the last thing I wanted was to play it again.”

Still, he agreed and sat down across from Michael. The two played and spoke in Russian, and before long, Michael made a mistake. Noam won the game.

Michael rolled up his sleeve and put on tefillin for the first time in his life. A friend who had been watching did the same.

“I feel closer to G-d now,” Michael told Noam, encouraging him to keep playing chess.

For a while afterward, Michael kept coming back to that same corner to play chess with Noam and Shalom, and whenever he was there, he’d put on tefillin with them.

“A part of me knew that at some point, all of the hours I spent playing and training chess would come to holy use,” Noam told anash.org. “It reignited within me the dream of a chess Chabad House.”

Noam can be reached at [email protected].