Valery Grechihin (1937-2008) became a grandmaster the regular way (gaining GM norms) in 1998 at the age of 60. He was the first deaf grandmaster in history.
I just wanted to bring up this interesting point in history..not trying to start an argument or say that this is wrong, as he was the first deaf grandmaster, as we know the title today.
Boris Verlinsky was a chess player in from the first half of the 20th century. He was deaf due to meningitis when he was a kid. he won the soviet championship in 1929, which at the time earned the title of "Grandmaster of the soviet union". Two years later, they abolished it and reorganized their classifications (fifth cat, 4thcat, etc, CM, M, GM). Mikhail Botvinnik was the first player to achieve GM of USSR with this format. Boris never got his GM title back
They don't mean it literally you fu.cking idiot.
Also you have absolute zero ability to determine a chess player's strength from their non-chess posts.
What post did you read? Can you read?