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Tiny Monster sat down at the chess board and slowly proceeded to demolish his opponent. Then he picked off five more rivals in a row. But Tiny Monster didn't swagger or boast. In fact, he finished each game with a handshake and a "good game."

His record is impressive, his nickname intimidating. But in person, he is just plain cute.

"I just do the best I can," says Tiny Monster, otherwise known as 6-year-old Kaydon Troff. The West Jordan boy went undefeated Saturday to win the first-grade section of the Utah State Elementary Chess Championship at the University of Utah. Some 661 students from 101 schools participated, setting a new record for the tournament, which has been around for nearly 20 years.

It was a record for Kaydon too, but not a surprise. Chess seemed to come naturally to him, according to his father. One day three years ago he approached his dad during a game and asked if he could play.

"I thought, 'Oh, yeah. Right.' " says Dan Troff. But Kaydon not only knew how the pieces moved, he had the beginnings of a real game. These days he has a sponsor who pays for private lessons and meetings with top U.S. chess players.

His brother Jeremy, age 12, tied for second place in sixth grade; and brother Zachary, 9, tied for third in third grade. It's not surprising considering the commitment their parents, Dan and Kim Troff, have made to chess.

Every day, the home-schooled boys do chess problems and play each other and opponents on the Internet, which is where Kaydon got his handle, "Tiny Monster." Jeremy says it's fun, not homework.

"It really gets you thinking a lot," he says.

Chess is a family affair for the Wrights of Holladay as well. This time, it's a female dynasty. Katrina, age 11, Adriana, 9, and Caitlyn, 8, have been playing with their father for years. Now Katrina is one of the top two players - both girls - in her school, Oakwood Elementary. She tied for second among the state's sixth-graders.

"It's been a great experience for her," says her father, Michael Wright. "She's a good player. She's on equal terms with players who are older than her. It's been great for [all three girls'] self-confidence."

Katrina says she doesn't see any difference in the way girls and boys play chess. "Except the girls are the best in our school," she says with a smile.

After watching the tournament for years, however, Michael McIntosh says he definitely sees a difference between the boys and girls.

"The boys come out after a game and say 'I crushed them. I killed them. I wiped them out,' " said McIntosh, chess coach at Bonneville Elementary in Salt Lake City and a former tournament director. "The girls will come out and say, 'She was really nice,' or 'I let her take a piece because I felt bad for her.' "

McIntosh says he can see benefits to both approaches. And he says he sees a lot of benefit to the kids, regardless of gender. "They can see that maybe there isn't just one solution to a problem. But they have to figure out what is the best solution. . . . It's great if they can learn to apply that to life."

He also appreciates that the game teaches kids to slow down and deliberate before they act, and that in tournaments the students must work out disagreements on their own.

Boys or girls, win or lose, Saturday's tournament seemed to be a success by most kids' standards. Between matches, kids played tag football or Frisbee outside, and ate pizza and doughnuts while they played chess, Uno and Nintendo inside.

Tobias Martens, a 6-year-old first-grader at Whittier Elementary School in Salt Lake City, said winning was better than losing. But the tournament overall?

"Good!" he yelled, throwing his arms into the air.

First-place finishers:

Kindergarten: Ben Hayes

First grade: Kaydon Troff

Second grade: HR Clark and Dimitri Sakellariou (tie)

Third grade: Colin Chen and Davis Unruh (tie)

Fourth grade: Scott

Seibert

Fifth grade: Scott Treiman and Michael Christensen (tie)

Sixth grade: Adam Mielke

First place: Whittier Elementary in Salt Lake City

Second place: McGillis in Salt Lake City

Third place: Oakwood in Holladay

Fourth place: The home-schooled Troff family

Fifth place: Hawthorne in Salt Lake City