US Senior Master; 2010 U12 Vice-World Champion; FIDE Master (2011); World U14 Champion (2012); International Master (2012); Grandmaster (2014); US Junior Champion (2014); top player U18 in the Americas (January 2015); achieved top rank of Eagle Scout (July 2016).
Preamble
Kayden learned to play chess at the age of 3 and started playing competitive chess when he was 6.
Championships
<Youth> In October 2009, he won the North American U12 Championships. In 2010, he won silver at the World U12 Championship in Halkidiki with 9/11, half a point behind China's Wei Yi. He won 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.
<Junior> In June 2014, he won the US Junior Closed Championship with 7/9, a point and a half clear of the field.
<National> In May 2013, he played in his inaugural US Chess Championship (2013), scoring 5/9 and his first GM norm. In June 2014, he won the U.S. Junior Championship with 7/9.
Standard Tournaments
<2009> 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. He scored a modest 3/6 in the Western States Open in 2009, in Reno, nevertheless defeating IM Vladimir Mezentsev in the first round.
<2010> 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 defeat IM Dionisio Aldama Degurnay and bring up his first result against a Grandmaster, a draw with Alexey Vladislavovich Yermolinsky. In June 2010, he managed 3.5/6 in the National Open in Las Vegas
<2011> He continued building up his experience and rating points in several subsequent tournaments, including the Berkeley International (2011) (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 Gennadyevich 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.
<2012> 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 another 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 by scoring a solid rating boost with his 5.5/9 at the 22nd North American Open held in Las Vegas.
<2013> This year 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 Zinovyevich Kaidanov. A few months later he competed successfully in the US Championship, scoring his first GM norm. In October, he tied for first at the SPICE Cup in St. Louis with former World Junior Champion Alexander Ipatov, scoring 6.5/9 and achieving his second GM norm.
<2014> He scored 4.5/13 at the Tata Steel Group B (2014). Troff followed up by winning a GM norm at the 2014 UT Dallas Spring FIDE Open underwritten by Turner Construction and 6/9 (=3rd) at the 8th Philadelphia Open. He scored a solid 6/9 at the 23rd Chicago Open and 6/9 at the 2014 CCSCSL Invitational GM in May 2014 to push his rating to the magic 2500 mark needed to meet the final condition for achieving the Grandmaster title. In August, he placed =3rd at the 2014 US Masters behind Bartlomiej Macieja and Yaroslav Zherebukh, and two months later in October was =4th at the 2014 Spice Cup Open. Both events provided significant boosts to his Elo rating. He finished 2014 with a win at the 2014 UT Dallas Fall FIDE Open.
Rating and Ranking
Troff's highest rating to date is 2556 reached in May 2015.
Other
Troff - who is mentored by former World Champion Garry Kasparov - featured in a musical dance video that choreographed the game Kasparov vs Topalov, 1999 (aka Kasparov's Immortal). The music was by the band TLC Trio, and the tune this band played for the game was Adele's Skyfall: http://en.chessbase.com/post/skyfal...
Wikipedia article: Kayden Troff
Kibitzing
