Guy starts chess at age of 20, is there the possibility he will ever achieve GM?

We have IM's at age of 14 like Anton Smirnov or Bogdan-Daniel Deac.

GM's at age of 15 like Sam Sevian and many others that came from 15 age.

Point is, guy starts playing at age of 20, he learns much slower than these super-boys, is there a possibility that he will ever make it to GM with tons and tons of hard work?

Just a question, cause took me 2 years to 1500 and I seem to be going nowhere above 1800 ever.

I just turned 23 and I'm a month away from playing chess for a year.. I think Im close to breaking 1400. in the next year I hope to see 1600 at least.. I've yet to put in serious study time, but I'd like too start doing that this year as well

no one can tell you what you can do.

its not likely more because of practical reasons for 20 year olds than anything else

The short answer is no.  This is due to my belief (not fully scientifically supported) of brain development.

When an adolescent studies chess rigorously the geometry of the brain is formed in a way to assist in the evaluation of chess.  This allows a child to become very good very quickly.

Another factor in chess learning is the freedom from obligation.  GM's like Samuel Sevian likely do not have much in their day besides chess studies while a 20 year old will probably have to support him/herself financially.

It is not impossible for a 20 year old to become of GM calibur but highly unlikely.  I'd wager the best way to obtain the GM title is by winning a tournament with the reward of the GM title (like the World Senior championship).

I would say yes. Why am I saying yes? Well when you hear no, its not possible, you get discouraged. You ask "why am I wasting my time playing chess when it will never amount to anything?". Then you give up playing chess. Then it never happens. This may sound delusional, but those who say no are wrong. Now its up to you to prove that they are wrong.

Completely agree with this, they say at younger age the brain is more plastic, also starting out around the age of 22 chess can only be a hobby because there are so many other important things to be done.

It's highly unlikely.

nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

sorry 

=P

I would say no, because you started this thread. Clearly the answer should be yes but that applies to players who get on with the job and don't stop until their goal is achieved. Statistics doesn't apply to individuals as it does to large populations.

lol

It's more elastic 

I would never say it's impossible, but it is highly improbable. To reach that level you really need to be able to devote a huge portion of your time (6-10 hours a day, pretty much every day for years and years) to studying and playing chess. children can do this because they have no real obligations and they are supported and taken care of by others. Adults, generally speaking, do not have this luxury. For adults the bulk of their time must be devoted to simply sustaining themselves and their household.

It is extremely unlikely, but only due to environmental demands. Neuroplasticity has almost nothing to do with it.

It's even worse than you describe. An adult who can spend 10 hours per day on chess is still not in an equivalent setting to a child who can spend 10 hours per day. The child will continue thinking about chess uninterrupted for the remaining waking hours. The adult, even if they could spend a block of 10 hours uninterrupted, would have their remaining waking hours interrupted with countless other things. The value of having continuous, uninterrupted thought about one topic, for years at a time, is incredibly valuable. For an adult to achieve that, they need to be single, have no friends or social life, independently wealthy, have no children, and have no responsibility in life in general. Of the handful of people who meet this criteria, they also need to be very passionate about chess, to the point where they spend all of their waking time thinking about it. Practically speaking, no one is ever going to fit this criteria. Usually if you are independently wealthy, you are either very driven and will not waste your time on something trivial like chess, or you are not very driven and are unlikely to put in the hard work when the time comes.

Mikhail Chigorin learned the moves of chess at 16, but didn't play seriously until after he finished his studies at 24.

Despite this late start, Chigorin became one of the world's best players by the time he was 40 and lost two matches for the world championship to Steinitz.

With talent and dedication I think a 20 year-old novice could make GM, but as many people point out, the stars would really have to line up for him to be able to devote that much time to the game.

Definitely true. I met a GM in a local tournament who became such at almost 50. 30 years of training are enough, I guess :P

To be sure talent is required to storm the GM heights of chess.

Nonetheless, the fact Chigorin managed to play at the level of Steinitz despite starting seriouis chess at 24, clinches it for me that a 20 year-old could make GM.

I wouldn't claim that Chigorin would reach world champion level today, but I'll bet he could have made it to the top 1000 players in the world -- more or less the current number of GMs.

Yep.. Certainly.......... if he remains single

Nope. It's never happened since the introduction of FIDE ratings in 1970, and it never will.

Do you have any idea of how strong today's GMs, let alone the world top 100, are?