Kayden William Troff (born 1998) is the current Under 14 World Youth chess champion, after a gold-medal finish at the World Youth Chess Championships in Maribor, Slovenia, in November 2012. A native of Utah in the USA, he also won the silver medal in the 12/under section at the World Youth Chess Championships in Greece in 2010. Additional international tournament victories by Kayden include gold at the 2009 North American Youth Championship for under age 12 in Mazatlán. He also became a FIDE Candidate Master in Mazatlán. As the highest-rated player in the state of Utah for all ages, he won the 2010 Utah Open. Kayden became a National Master at the American Open in November 2009, at age 11 and a FIDE Master in 2011. He earned his third and final norm to become an IM-Elect at the Metropolitan International tournament in Los Angeles in August, 2012. He became an International Master in January 2013.
Kayden first demonstrated chess ability at the age of three; having learned to play by watching his father (Daniel Troff) teach and play against his brothers. When Troff turned six, his father decided to have him tutored by Grandmaster Igor Ivanov, who was impressed with how well Kayden played.
Kayden first won a Utah State Elementary Championship at the age of six and has won first place in his grade in the Utah State Elementary Championship every year thereafter. In December 2007, at age eight, Troff was named to the United States Chess Federation's 2008 All America Chess Team and at age 10, he was named to the 2010 All America Chess Team, an honor described as "one of the highest national honors attainable by a young chess player". On December 14, 2008, he won second place at the fifth-grade level at the National K-12 Championships.
On January 24, 2009, Troff won the Utah Speed Chess Championship at age ten, becoming the youngest player to win that event. In that event he went 2–0 against Jeff Phillips, who was at the time Utah's only chess master and also the Utah player with the highest quick chess rating.
On March 14, 2009, Troff won the Utah G/60 Championship (where each player has one hour to complete the whole game), also becoming the youngest player ever to win that event. At this event he defeated the #1 seed, 73-year-old Hans Morrow, the oldest player in the tournament. After this win, the tournament director dubbed Kayden "Utah's Mozart of Chess."
In September 2009 Kayden made it to the first-board of the Southern California Open tournament in the last round, where he was defeated by GM Melikset Khachiyan, who won the event and later became Kayden's coach. Kayden's other loss in the tournament was to GM Alejandro Ramirez, who also tied for first. Kayden defeated all his other opponents in the tournament, including an International Master and two masters, earning a performance rating of 2491. This followed a 2453 performance rating at the sixth Utah Expert Series. Kayden also defeated an International Master in the Western States Open in Reno in October 2009, along with several master-level players. He won his third over-the-board game against an IM by defeating Jack Peters, the chess columnist for the Los Angeles Times, in a California tournament in May 2010.
Kayden's quick rating was the highest of all US players under the age of 13 according to the Top 100 rating list published by the USCF from June 2009 through October 2010. For two months in 2009 Kayden was the highest USCF standard rated active tournament player in Utah. In May 2010 he defeated Harold Stevens, Utah's then highest-rated player, in a match, winning all three games. In the Fall of 2010, Kayden played a series of 29-minute mini-matches and quick tournaments with the highest-rated players in the Salt Lake City area to prepare himself for the World Youth Championships in Greece. His score against Utah's toughest opponents was 25–0, which improved his quick rating to the #1 position for all US chess players under age 16. In October 2010 he won the Utah Open tournament with a 4–0 score.
Kayden's ambition is to become a Grandmaster, which will require a 2500 FIDE rating as well as three Grandmaster level performances (norms) in international tournaments. He earned his first International Master (IM) Norm at the 5th Metropolitan Chess FIDE Invitational tournament in Los Angeles in May, 2011, winning every game he played against titled IMs. Kayden is the current Utah Open Champion, Utah Junior High Champion, and has been the Elementary Champion several times.
Kayden lives in West Jordan, Utah with his parents, Kim and Daniel, little sister Brynndi, and brothers Jeremy and Zachary, both of whom also play chess at a high level for their age group. In 2007, at age 16, Jeremy shared first place at the Salt Lake City Open. He also won the 2009 Utah State High School championship tournament. The Troff family runs a popular "TNT" Chess Camp in the Salt Lake City area, along with their family friend Scott Treiman, who won the 2009 Utah State Junior High School championship tournament.