My Interview with Kayden Troff

Today, I will be interviewing Kayden Troff. If you don't know who that is, he was the U-14 World Chess Champion in 2012, and the U-21 World Chess Champion in 2014. He also became a GM that year. On Chess.com, he is @KaydenTroffChess. So, without further ado, let's dive in.

Q. How do you feel about being such a strong player and writing at a very young age?

A. Chess has always been a big part of my life and something I love. Being a strong player was a great opportunity to do what I love and have some great experiences doing it. Outside of the actual chess, I have lots of great memories from traveling, that I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to do otherwise. Between the enjoyment and memories, I will always feel very positive about my chess growing up and what I was able to achieve. As far as writing goes, it has become something that I have enjoyed more and more as I have gotten older, and it was a great way to record and keep some of those memories fresh. I also feel like it was a good skill to work on for chess improvement. Chess has such depth to it that taking a look back on the games I played and elaborating on them in writing was very helpful. 

That sounds very interesting. It must be fun to have a job that you love to do.

Q. When did you learn to play chess?

A. I learned to play chess at the age of 3. I used to sit on my lap and watch my dad and brothers play and picked it up from watching. I can’t say I remember too much from those early years, but I can say that I don’t remember a time in my life when I didn’t know how to play chess.

I learned at age 7 or 8, so you were a bit ahead of me .

Q. What is your favorite chess book?

A. I admittedly have never been the biggest reader, so I would say growing up it was How To Reassess Your Chess by Jeremy Silman. It was one of the first chess books I was introduced to. There were several concepts in that book that really resonated with me and was some of my first insight into “positional play”. Nowadays, I would say my favorite books are more game collection books. No specific one in mind, but books that highlight some of the best games of the past I love. 

                                       

I have not read that one, but I will look into it. I am the same way with chess books .

         

Q. What is your best chess game?

A. After tens of thousands of games, it is a bit tricky to pick one. I would probably say my win over Le Quang Liem from the 2014 Spice Cup Open. It is my highest-rated classical win, and from beginning to end I feel like I played really well and made a lot of good decisions. 

Wow, that is a very interesting game.

Q. What is your favorite chess game?

A. Again a bit hard to pick one. Right now I would say Karpov-Kasparov 1-0 game 27 of the 1984 World Championship. It isn’t the flashiest game by any means, compared to others it is a bit tame, but that is a big part of why I love it. I was much more of a tactical player growing up and was much more interested in solving puzzles rather than studying classic games to improve my positional play. This game was one of the first ones that actually started to get me interested in studying the classics. Karpov subtly outplayed Kasparov and then held onto the advantage despite Kasparov putting up some great resistance. My coach at the time was the one that introduced me to the game and while he did walk through some of the important principles behind Karpov’s play, I have gone back to it many times to study and understand some of the subtleties even more. 

I enjoy the Karpov-Kasparov matches as well. This game is amazing.

Q. What are your goals?

A. I guess like most people coming to the end of the year I have been thinking about this. Truth is right now the main goal I have is to get my views up on Quora past 500,000. I'm just about to cross 300,000 so half a million feels like the next big goal for me. Outside of that, I don’t have much set as far as goals go.

That is a lot of views. Good Luck.

Q. What is your biggest accomplishment?

A. I would say achieving the title of Grandmaster. When you grow up thinking of something as some sort of fantasy and then work for years to achieve it and manage to do so, it is hard to not see that as the biggest one. 

That makes a lot of sense. That is a huge accomplishment.

Q. What is your favorite, and proudest moment related to chess?

A. I would have to say it was when I won the Under-14 World Championship. Of course, it was a very proud moment, but what made it extra unique is I didn’t realize I had won it at first. My last-round opponent was a point ahead of me and so beating him made us tied. I didn’t know that the first tiebreaker was the head-to-head result, and so based on the other tiebreaks I thought it was likely that I was going to lose on tiebreaks. I was excited that I had guaranteed second, but when I found out I had actually taken first I got to have that same moment of excitement just to a greater degree. A fantastic moment, but the uniqueness of not knowing at first that I won sets it apart for me. 

I see why becoming World Champion would be one of your biggest achievements.

Q. How much do you play chess? Is it a part-time job?

A. I play chess online a lot, usually anonymously, but don’t play much over the board. Right now I am fairly casual on the side of playing chess. I do teach chess for work, but I don’t play for work.

Being a coach must be fun. It is becoming harder and harder to play chess full time.

Q. What do you do on average weekdays?

A. For work, I do a mix of chess teaching and writing. So usually it involves one, if not both, of those. Past that, I enjoy watching shows and playing games and am pretty close with my family so I often am doing something with family members. 

Sounds like a full week with writing and teaching. Writing about chess must be fun because those are two things you enjoy.

Q. What else do you like to do besides chess?

A. I feel like a lot of what I said above answers this, but if I were to elaborate I would say that writing is something I put a bit more time into that I enjoy. I quite enjoy playing video games, but it is hard for me to seriously get into a game if I am the only one playing it, so what I am playing usually depends on what my family members or friends are into. I enjoy listening to music and am always looking to discover some more, so I enjoy checking out different artists or new music and getting lost in suggestions of similar artists or songs. I enjoy getting outside in the warmer months, even if it is just going for a walk. 

I enjoy writing but have a hard time getting started.  I also enjoy being outside, and listening to music.

Q. Have you written/published anything that is not on Chess.com and Chesskid.com?

A. I have done quite a bit of writing on Quora.com which would be the severe majority of things that I have written not on Chess.com. 

Writing must be a very interesting job.

Q. Do you feel like you were the Tani/Mishra when you were 10-15?

A. Hmmm not really, but I am not a big fan of comparison. Each of those players has done amazing things in chess, but they also have their own unique standout things about them that make them amazing. So yes I was one of the many young talents in the country growing up, but that’s where I would leave it. 

That's fair. However, being World Champion is no small accomplishment.

Q. What is your advice to other chess players aspiring to increase their playing strength to master level?

A. Consistently work hard. Chess is a complicated game, there is a lot to work on and it is easy to get lost in that. If you want to seriously improve then the first step is to be able to work hard and do so consistently. I tell all my students in the first lesson that I want them to be playing at least one longer (rapid, but preferably longer) game and doing 30 minutes of puzzle-solving every weekday. That to me is the bare minimum for chess improvement and any player looking to make master level should be doing at least that. Secondly, I would say keep it fun. I feel like this is one of the most forgotten ones. I saw a lot of players get burnt out growing up, and even for myself, there were definite parts of chess study that I didn’t enjoy as much. After all the hard work you need to make sure you are doing things to keep chess a fun thing. It will keep you more motivated and help in playing better. 

I agree with all that advice, and wish I was doing that every day lol.

Q. What important things would you like to tell us about your chess career that I have missed?
 

A. Not too much, the only thing I would add is that I grew up in Utah, and as far as I know, I am the only Grandmaster ever that was born in Utah. That is an achievement I bring up because I think that's what makes chess so great. Some random kid from Utah can become Grandmaster. It's a game that brings people together from all around the world and has a place for everyone to succeed. 

I agree with that. Anyone can succeed at chess, if they really try.

I really enjoyed this interview, and I learned a lot. I also am going to try to do what you tell your students to do. Thank you for the interview, Kayden, and best wishes with your writing and teaching.

Thanks for reading and goodbye for now,

                                                                                                                           -Herriotja.