Kayden learnt to play chess at the age of 3 and started playing competitive chess when he was 6. After taking out numerous prizes in school and junior tournaments, both in his home state of Utah, and nationally, he first participated in a FIDE rated tournament at the 2009 Far West Open in Reno, Nevada, in April 2009 scoring 3/6. He followed this up a few months later at the 14th Annual Pacific Coast Open in California, this time placing =6th with a score 3.5/6. In September 2009, he came =9th with 4.5/6 in the 31st Annual Southern California Open in San Diego, defeating the experienced IM Edward W Formanek and FM Gregg H Small. The next month in October he took out the North American U12 Championships, and then scored a modest 3/6 in the Western States Open, also in Reno, nevertheless defeating IM Vladimir Mezentsev in the first round.

After a quiet start to 2010, Kayden scored 3/5 in the 8th Annual Western Pacific Open in Los Angeles in April, winning against IM John A Peters. Moving onto the 2010 Copper State International Swiss in Arizona, Kayden scored a modest 4/9 but still managed to to defeat IM Dionisio Aldama Degurnay and bring up his first result against a Grandmaster, a draw with Alex Yermolinsky. In June 2010, he managed 3.5/6 in the National Open in Las Vegas before coming good by winning silver at the World U12 Championship in Halkidiki with 9/11, half a point behind China's Wei Yi. Since then he has competed in several tournaments, building up his experience and rating points, including the 2011 Berkeley International (4/5/10) in January and the 3rd Metropolitan FIDE Invitational in February, where despite his modest score of 3/9, he scored wins against US IM Timothy Taylor and Kazakh IM Zhanibek Amanov. In April 2011, he competed in the 11th Annual Reno Far West Open, placing =4th with 4/6, including a draw against GM Sergey Kudrin. There followed the 5th Metropolitan Chess FIDE Invitational in Los Angeles where he placed outright 2nd with 6.5/9 behind Roman Yankovsky, again defeating IMs Taylor and Amanov and adding IM David Pruess to his kitty. He was less successful in the US Junior that was staged in St Louis in June, winning three and losing six games.

Troff had an excellent start to 2012, scoring 5.5/9 at the 2012 Northern California International, enough for an IM norm, followed by a strong 5/9 at the 2012 Chicago Open, narrowly missing an IM norm. However, the gains from the latter were undone with a very poor 2/9 performance at the 19th Metropolitan Chess FIDE Invitational in Los Angeles in June, although he made up for lost ground with a strong 5.5/9 at the 2nd Metropolitan Chess FIDE International in August, which included a win over Turkmen GM Mesgen Amanov. A powerful 5/9 at the SPICE Open in October (against opponents rated on average at 2489) boosted his rating by nearly 40 points to take him to top ranking in the US for his age division (U14), gaining him his 3rd IM norm and narrowly missing a GM norm. He finished 2012 with a flourish by winning the 2012 World U14 Championship held in Maribor on tiebreak ahead of the runner-up, Indian FM Chithambaram V R Aravindh, whom he beat in the final round, and by scoring a solid rating boost with his 5.5/9 at the 22nd North American Open held in Las Vegas.

2013 also started well for Troff, scoring an excellent 6/9 at the Golden State Open held in Concord, California, and finishing =3rd behind the winner Li Chao and the runner up Gregory Kaidanov. This result added 30 points to his official FIDE rating. A subsequent 5/9 result at the 2013 UT Dallas Spring FIDE Open in March 2013 added another 14 points to his card. In May 2013, he played in his inaugural US Chess Championships (2013), scoring 5/9 and his first GM norm.

As of 1 May 2013, Troff's rating is 2421 making him the top rated U16 player in the Americas and number 14 in the U16s in the world. He is also number 68 player in the USA.