When Justin Friedlander was a 3-year-old in the Chanen Preschool at Congregation Beth Israel, his teacher Carol Berkowitz told his parents that he was indeed exceptional. As a teacher at the school for more than 30 years, she had seen hundreds of kids, so from then on his parents Robert and Janet Friedlander “viewed Justin and his budding awareness much differently.”
By the time Justin was 4, he started watching his older brother Benjamin play chess, and he knew he wanted to be involved with the game as well. Now, at the ripe old age of 8, Justin and his father are headed to Durban, South Africa, where he has earned the right to represent the United States in the FIDE World Chess Federation Youth Championships Sept. 20-29.
There he’ll be participating in 11 rounds of chess in 10 days with one day off. He’s hoping to have a little time to see some sites and to throw around the baseball and football he’ll be taking along; he and his dad are going to look for a synagogue for Rosh Hashanah services as well.Justin is a third-grader at Sonoran Sky Elementary School in the Paradise Valley School District. He says that math is his favorite subject but reading is moving up quickly as a close second. “When I read, I can barely hear people calling my name,” he says. “I imagine every word. I’m taking a book on the plane with me. We have to read 400 pages this quarter, but I’ve already read about 200.”
When he was a mere second-grader, Justin led his class to the state championship in Rubik’s Cube. That is, he solved the most combinations and in the fastest time. He taught himself to master the entire cube in less than two weeks. Benjamin, 10, helped to set the stage for Justin’s love of chess. Benjamin is also a champion chess player, and the boys have taken lessons through the Chess Emporium in north Phoenix and Unity Chess in Scottsdale. The boys also play a number of sports including soccer, baseball, flag football and basketball. The “baby” as Justin refers to her, is 4-year-old Marissa. She completes the family along with Shekel, a Canaan dog, the natural breed of Israel. (The Canaan dogs date back to Biblical times when they would guard the camps and herds of the ancient Israelites.) The family belongs to Congregation Beth Israel and Justin attends the Mark L. Haberkorn Religious School there.
Justin currently has one chess teacher from Cuba and another from Iran. “It’s great that Justin is exposed to different chess styles as well as different cultures,” Robert says. “He’s learning other foods, languages, religions and customs. Chess is much more than just moving a lot of plastic pieces around a chess board.”
Justin has also been learning about the reality of finances and has been fundraising to help defray some of the $15,000 in costs associated with the South African tournament. Recently, at AZ Air Time in Scottsdale, he offered 5-minute games for $5 and played against other children and many adults as well. He will be participating in a national tournament in December in Florida, with a national spring tournament and four major state tournaments on the horizon.
You can watch Justin’s progress at the World Championships by going to justinchess.com. Robert will be posting regular updates on the “How’s Justin Doing” portion of the site. There you can also make a donation to help Justin and his family with the associated costs.
