Tuesday, March 17, 2009

10-year old wins Utah State Chess Championship

Media outlets from around the country are abuzz with news about Kayden Troff, just 10 years old, winning the Utah Game/60 Championship.

A 10-year-old West Jordan boy has won the 2009 Utah Game/60 Chess Championship — and he could be ranked first in the nation in his age group.

Kayden Troff won $120 in prize money Saturday and has been invited to attend U.S. Chess School this summer.

10-Year-Old Boy Wins Utah Chess Tournament [www.fox13now.com]
10-year-old West Jordan boy wins Utah chess tournament, has a bright future [Seattle Times]
10-year-old wins Utah State Chess Championship [www.ksl.com]

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

For the record, Kayden is now 2123 USCF Quick rated (it originally showed up as 2125 right after the tournament was rated, but these numbers adjust as missing tournament information from other players is incorporated). Kayden's 2123 rating is higher than Nicholas Nip and any other current player under 13 that I can find on the USCF website. However, that rating didn't make it under the wire into the April supplement, so Kayden will have to settle for 3rd or 4th place on the list with a 2073 quick rating. That's the reasoning behind the nationwide buzz. We're awfully proud of him here in Utah... he's the sweetest kid you could imagine, and is doing so well despite the fact that we have no masters in our state and very few rated events. -Damian Nash, TD

CamusUnder said...

Also, he has recently achieved the title of Candidate master, and his rating is probably over 2200 as of the results of the West States Reno. He represented the USA in Mazatlan last month, I think, and won first place with 6.5/7.0 for U12 in North America. And yes, he's a great kid. He's modest and yet confident in his ability.

Way to go Kayden!
--Matt Boren, random Utahn chess player

P.S. Check out Kayden's article on wikipedia.org.