Troff Boys with Chess Trophies
Here’s a rare opportunity to learn a little from Utah’s 2009 chess champions, 10 year-old Kayden Troff and his older brother Jeremy Troff. They’ve shared with us a few of their tips and ideas on improving your chess skills.
Study
“You must always have an idea of what you want to do and how you are going to do it. Second, you must practice as much as you can. Even if you lose you can learn a lot of things and the experience of playing will help you a lot.” – Jeremy Troff
“Knowing the basics of chess is only the first. If you really want to be good at chess, you have to study and find someone who can teach you.” – Kayden Troff
Practice, Practice, Practice
“Just like anything else, to get really good you have to practice.” – Kayden Troff
“There are many things involved in chess that even experts are still trying to learn everything. Always practice because if you take a long break from chess, you can actually get worse. It is just like anything else that you want to be good at, if you don’t practice you will not get better.” – Jeremy Troff
“No matter how much chess knowledge you have, it can not replace real experience over the chess board. You have to go to chess tournaments.” – Kayden Troff
Learn From Your Losses
According to Jeremy, it’s important to remember that no matter how good you are, you will occasionally lose. “No one wins all of their chess matches. But if you look at your losses as an opportunity to learn then there is a lot of benefit from that.” As a Grandmaster shared with Jeremy, “You can learn so much more from your losses than you can from your wins.”
Find Good Chess Software
If you’re starting out or even for those more advanced, Jeremy recommends Chess Tactics for Beginners. “The next one up is Chess Tactics for Intermediate Players. This is very hard chess software and one I think would take anyone a long time to do if they wanted to get a good score on it.”
One of the most important lessons for Kayden came from Grandmaster Kaidanov, who taught him the important of openings, and using chess software from Chessbase like Fritz and Deep Rybka 3 to improve his rating.
“My little sister is learning chess from a computer program called Dinosaur Chess. That is a fun way to learn chess.” – Kayden Troff
“The best chess software is the Russian tactics software. The first one is called Chess Tactics for Beginners. They should also get Fritz or another chess analysis program. And they should get an ICC account so they can play people all around the world any time they want.” – Kayden Troff
Find Someone to Teach You
“You have to find someone who can teach you. The first thing is to learn the name of the chess pieces, how they move, and what there value is. It is always good to try and find other people that you can play with either in a school chess club or at a library chess club or you can go to a chess camp like we have. You can also take chess lessons.” – Kayden Troff
Play Both Sides of the Board
“It is not enough to just focus on what you are doing. You have to figure out what your opponent is going to do and always ask what their threat is.” – Kayden Troff
Have Fun With Chess
“Chess takes work and study and is not something you are going to put the time into unless you really like it.” – Kayden Troff
Jeremy and Kayden Troff host a chess camp along with other young chess experts in Utah. For more information about their chess camp, visit the TNT Chess Camp website.
