Yesterday I have read a couple of comments in a website about a player who after only recently finally released from the shackles of study and work (his employers blessed his ambitions) decides to go get the GM status. He's in his 20s and in the 2006 Olympiad in Turin even beat Korchnoi. A couple of people hiding behind near anonymous names started dissing him before he had a chance to prove anything. But one commentor pointed that there were many people who got their GM status later in life.

 http://blog.gilachess.com/mas-is-458-in-dubai/#comment-1774

 Is it still possible to get it in his 20s?

I'd be surprised if the majority of GM titles were earned before the age of 20.

I think so. Age doesn't mean anything. That one pessimist on that site is probably some old guy with a USCF rating of -1 at best so I guess he would feel that way. Any real GM would be a so-called spectator. It doesn't matter whether you're 2, 20 or 200, as long as you can play chess I think you can do anything you want.

You really shouldn't mind people like that. It's just like that in sports- the old guy who has never touched a ball in his life that seems to know everything...

This is a slightly different question from one that had been asked a while back. It is infinitely harder for a non-titled adult player to study to become a GM than it is for an adult who is already an IM and had learned chess at a young age.

Um, Bobby, do you play in tourneys up there? Do cheaters spend the night in hell?