Late-starting chess players with grandmaster potential?

[Richard Bates]

Justin,
I had a number of names in mind, but I couldn't say for definite. The one that I'm 95% sure about is Mark Ferguson

Don't think so.

[Nick Ivell]

I believe Rubinstein started late, but that was a different era.

If you want to be good, start early. This is as true now as it has ever been.

[Matthew Turner]

Justin,
I had a number of names in mind, but I couldn't say for definite. The one that I'm 95% sure about is Mark Ferguson

Don't think so.

Care to elucidate?

[Richard Bates]

Need to distinguish between people who started late, and were late developers (eg. who played a lot but were not considered anything special as younger juniors but suddenly make dramatic advances in late teens or later)

[Nick Ivell]

And I think Hawkins fits the latter category perfectly. Let's put this stuff to bed that he was a complete beginner as a teenager.

[Richard Bates]

Justin,
I had a number of names in mind, but I couldn't say for definite. The one that I'm 95% sure about is Mark Ferguson

Don't think so.

Care to elucidate?

Well the fact that he was British U14 champion is a bit of a clue! But he also once told me an amusing (for me) story about a tournament in Surrey once when we were a bit younger that i (as a relative 'superstar') turned up to play. He said he had some memory (being down on board 50 or something) as being somewhat in awe as i arrived and then promptly beat everyone fairly easily. Oh those were the days

I would guess he maybe took up the game when started secondary school? (although i've no reason to think it wasn't earlier)

[John Upham]

Is Jonathan Hawkins anything close to what we're looking for. I assume not really, but are there any examples from the past of world-class players who learned the moves relatively late? I'm sure we've discussed this before on here, but can't think of any useful search terms.

Names that spring to mind include John Shaw, Maxim Devereaux and Jonathan Hawkins.

You could perhaps also include Joe Gallagher

[Roger de Coverly]

The one that I'm 95% sure about is Mark Ferguson

By the time of the 1996 Varsity match, his rating was 2360 and the report describes him as "IM-elect". The earliest online ECF grading for 1994 has him at 214. His year of birth was 1977. When he first learnt and how rapidly he reached the titled side of 200, I would not know.

[Geoff Chandler]

Hi Will,

Howard Staunton, after who the famous chess pieces are named, though he did not design them.
He did not take up the game seriously till he was 26 or 27. He is often listed as one of the unofficial world champions.
You will find more details on his wiki page (yes wiki is dodgy but the chess stuff on the whole is OK. Well researched.)

Of course back then, early Victorian age, there were very few young players where about.
(going up and down chimneys if I remember my Dickens.) so it was rather an early middle-aged man's game.

I can tell of a fondly remembered player called Gordon Morrison who joined the Edinburgh Club a a raw beginner when he was 65.
He honestly did not know how the pieces moved.

He became quite good but not I.M. standard or anything like that but you had to careful else he would do you.
A handy league team player to put on board 5 or 6 his age took his younger opponents unaware.
He won a medal when he was 72 or 73. He was simply overjoyed.

The club environment helped and the fact he lived very nearby, he was up at the club every night - including Sundays playing me!
On any given night he would play stronger players in friendlies always learning.

Late starters going onto to great things in chess seem to be an exception, but beware,
you can fall in love with the game at any age and once hooked, so be careful here, you in it for life.

Good Luck with your project.

Geoff

Edit: I.M. = International chess master.

[Matthew Turner]

Don't think so.

Care to elucidate?

Well the fact that he was British U14 champion is a bit of a clue! But he also once told me an amusing (for me) story about a tournament in Surrey once when we were a bit younger that i (as a relative 'superstar') turned up to play. He said he had some memory (being down on board 50 or something) as being somewhat in awe as i arrived and then promptly beat everyone fairly easily. Oh those were the days

I would guess he maybe took up the game when started secondary school? (although i've no reason to think it wasn't earlier)

I think you are younger than Mark? so if you were an established player and Mark was board 50 then that suggests he was a late starter, so it may well be that it was 11.

[Richard Bates]

If you want some serious possible candidates, although still not "that" late, i would suggest Keith Arkell (learnt at 13). Not sure when Mark Hebden started.

[JustinHorton]

Names that spring to mind include John Shaw, Maxim Devereaux and Jonathan Hawkins.

You could perhaps also include Joe Gallagher

Max Devereaux was already a strong player (200+ when that meant something, as I recall) when he got to university, though I don't know how long he'd taken t get to that point.

[Kevin Thurlow]

Didn't James Plaskett start fairly late (i.e. early to mid-teens)? You generally expect the leading players to have started comfortably in single figures. Magnus Carlsen started young, but I believe gave up for a while and started again when a younger sister started to play. (He was still fairly young of course!)

Joe Gallagher was about 200/2200 when he was 17.

Mark Ferguson was about 160/1900 when he was 14. (I played him in round 1 of Hastings Challengers 1991-1992)

[Nick Ivell]

The names being put forward are a long way from meeting the criteria put forward in the original post.

I would say it's about as likely as me running the 100 metres in less than 10 seconds.

[Richard Bates]

Care to elucidate?

Well the fact that he was British U14 champion is a bit of a clue! But he also once told me an amusing (for me) story about a tournament in Surrey once when we were a bit younger that i (as a relative 'superstar') turned up to play. He said he had some memory (being down on board 50 or something) as being somewhat in awe as i arrived and then promptly beat everyone fairly easily. Oh those were the days

I would guess he maybe took up the game when started secondary school? (although i've no reason to think it wasn't earlier)

I think you are younger than Mark? so if you were an established player and Mark was board 50 then that suggests he was a late starter, so it may well be that it was 11.

I should point out that my comment was in response to you nominating him as having started in his mid-teens!