Well it is all about how high one wants to set the bar. Those examples are from 100+ years ago. Chigorin is a promising counterexample but there are a few cav

Well it is all about how high one wants to set the bar. Those examples are from 100+ years ago. Chigorin is a promising counterexample but there are a few caveats. He learned the moves at 16, late by modern standards and supposedly only got serious at 24. We really do not know how much intensive/deliberate study he did ages 16-24. That is the big question. Same goes for Salwe. So while Chigorin is a relatively late bloomer he still falls in the starting to play chess in his teens category. I mostly concur with Polgar experiment with the addition that you have to start early. If age was NOT a factor there should be very strong players who started late after age of 25 put in their hard 5-7 years and became at least an IM. Disclaimer: I missed IM norm by 0.5 points so obviously I am biased.