What was the oldest GM?

Hello.

The topic title says it almost! all. What I'm looking for is not the age of the oldest living GM, or of the oldet chess player achieving the GM-title.

I'm looking for the oldest "chess-playing starter" who actually became a GM. Most of them are thaught chess with 4 or something and make, to a certain degree, chess to their life, including their childhood. Dive in from the beginning.

But is there a GM who, though even knowing about chess since childhood, dived in "only" at the age of 20? 25? Even 30? And still made it to GM?

The oldest I can think of was Viktor Ciocaltea of Romania.  He was born on January 16, 1932.  He became an International Master in 1957 at the age of 25.  He played on and off, and finally became a grandmaster at the age of 47 in 1979.

I don't know about becoming a Grandmaster but in the IM stakes Geza Fuster of Hungary latterly of Canada was born in 1910 and was awarded the IM title in 1969.

 Must be a strong candidate for the oldest when awarded. He was born in 1947 and became an IM in 1980. Over 60 when awarded the GM title. Enormous feat --most players are in their dotage by then.

Did anyone even bother to read the first post?

The topic title says it almost! all. What I'm looking for is not the age of the oldest living GM, or of the oldet chess player achieving the GM-title.

Probably not the latest starter, but, to get the ball rolling, Mikhail Chigorin was 16 when he learned the rules of the game and around 24 when he started to study it seriously. There were no GM titles in his day (not even a FIDE organisation to award them), but he was among the best in the world.

Sammy Reschevsky came 1st equal in the Reykjavik Open in 1984 at the age of 72 but Reschevsky was a child prodigy earlier; As regards becomin' a GM, I dunno how old he was, but Jacques Mieses was gettin' on a bit when he was amongst the first raft of players to be entitled 'Grandmaster' by FIDE

               Mea Culpa   On rereading the first post the question is--Who is the oldest when taking up or learning chess who later became a Grandmaster?

Difficult poser as nothing concrete to go on if say the player has passed on. People tend to disclose this if it is a very early age eg. Capablanca learned the moves aged 4 watching his father play.  Or he was a child protegy like Reshevsky or Pomar.

To actually trying to answer your question i did some googling and other stuff and came up with two names that started relatively late playing chess and became "Grandmasters": Mikhail Chigorin and Joseph Henry Blackburne

Well i actually don`t know if they had the title "Grandmaster" due to the time they lived in(was "Grandmaster" a common name and title back then?

Anyway

Chigorin learned the the moves at the age of 16 by his teacher, did not take to the game before the age of 24, after finishing his studies. In just few years he was considered one of Russias top chess players...Read more on Wiki...really interesting: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Chigorin

Blackburne learned the game by the age of 18, and quickly became a strong player. His proffesional career lasted for over 50 years, and according to wiki he was at one point the second most succesfull player. Read more on wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Henry_Blackburne

The first batch of titles (GM,IM) was awarded by FIDE in 1950 when J. Mieses received the GM title. He was born in 1865 so was probably the oldest player to receive the title. He was no slouch as a player in very old age eg He won the Brilliancy Prize at Hastings in 1945 aged 80.