Is it true you must start chess young to become a grandmaster?

I have seen many people saying that you must start as a young child to potentially become a grandmaster later in life. But I have also seen many other people share stories of grandmasters such as Arthur Dake who learned chess at 16 and became a grandmaster several years later. I unfortunately am caught in between starting young and beginning later in life. I learned chess at 9 and showed some talent in the area, even winning a school tournament without studying much, but I haven't played in about two years. I want to get back in the game and start playing again, so I started studying intensely for around 4 hours a day (I am 14 years old currently, but I'd be willing to study more). I want to become an international master, or even a grandmaster one day, but with so many people telling me it's too late, I'm not sure if it's even achievable. I'm willing to work very hard and dedicate my life to learning if it means accomplishing my goals. Cases in which people become professionals later in life such as Arthur Dake's are rare, but if I continue to push myself, could I hope to become a master one day?

Yes, you can still be a master. Hell, some people start at 7 and only ever become IM and can never break that 2500 threshold. It just depends how much work you are going to put into it. Making master is the first goal. After you get there, you should be able to tell how much more you're going to be able to improve.

Of course. Just because it is more common for an early start doesn't mean it's impossible

 not at all, you don't have to be young

you just have to put in more effort and focus into improving your chess

It's not too late. You can still become an IM or GM if you start at the age of 14.

You will have to work very hard, but it's achievable.

At the very least, you should be able to break 2000 rating, even if you don't make IM or GM.

Thanks for everyone who replied. Gave me lots of motivation and hope! I'm going to be studying extra hard.

I started playing chess at the age of 13. I showed a lot of promise crossing 2000 FIDE Elo in no time. My family did not support me playing chess. I also noticed that kids younger than me have already became IMs and GMs and somehow got convinced that it was too late for me.I lost motivation and quit tournament chess.

Now years later I realise that I love chess too much to fully stay away from it.But now that I have become an adult ,it is even harder for me to make it anywhere in chess(Though I havent given up)

        So please dont make the same mistake that I did. To motivate you further I would like to mention my current chess heroes :

Jonathan Hawkins and Ye Jiangchuan 

(Do google about them when you have the time)

Good Luck

Also, Sam Shankland played his first chess tournament at 12 years old. He's #44 in the world now, 2691 FIDE.

How many Arthur Dakes are there versus the number of people who were masters before Arthur Dake even learned chess? You cannot use an exception to show that "yeah anyone can just do it"

But yes, you can definitely become a master. There are many adults who started chess as an adult, and made it to master level.

Also, I, too, began to seriously learn chess at 14 years old, when I was about 1100 on chess.com (2019). Last year, I peaked at 2144 USCF, which I would say is pretty close to master. Maybe I could have gotten master if I kept studying chess consistently. But I don't really enjoy chess as much these days, and I haven't played in a serious tournament in almost a whole year.

Everyone going for the top works hard. Do you think people like Levy Rozman, who struggles to even obtain a 2400 FIDE rating, didn't work hard, and didn't grind hours per day on chess to try for GM?

No one becomes GM by not working hard. You certainly should know this, since you say you grind many hours a day to get to where you are right now.

Also, there's a reason why Magnus is very good at chess, because there isn't anyone like him in the whole world. What are the chances that you are as talented at chess as Carlsen is? Let's be real. If that was the case, then OP wouldn't even have posted this...

Of course, OP was last seen online 3 years ago. I think they don't play chess anymore.

Congrats! You've certainly earned it.

Did he ever try to become a GM? Not really. Right after getting the IM title in 2018 (age 23) he stopped caring for competitive chess and became a youtuber instead. That's a different job.

I'll concede the point. His "I'm trying to be GM phase" didn't really feel like trying for GM. Even so, there's plenty of people who stay at IM level who can't quite make it to GM, or take a long time to get GM, and barely keep their rating. I wouldn't dare say that none of them aren't "working hard".

The point is that everyone up there is working hard.