Wilhelm Steinitz became world champion at 50. Your good years are still ahead.

Nowadays if you don't pick up the game early in your childhood, it becomes very difficult to reach certain levels but fortunately for me, I was not aware that this was the belief that was held by many-a-people. When I was in Varsity, back in 2010, I saw this huge, half human sized board with pieces that had crowds around it most of the time. I knew that it was Chess because I recall back in my junior years playing with the glass pieces and making illegal moves continually at a friend's house, then again in High School where a certain fellow used to be celebrated for checkmating people in four moves. As interesting as this was, it did not light a fire in me, not until I got to Varsity when I saw the size and majesty of the pieces did I realize how big the game could actually be. :)

I had a friend who knew how to play, we were in the same pre-tech course(that's the class you take when your grades from high school aren't good enough to grant you acceptance into the field of Engineering.) He had a tiny magnetic chessboard, one that folded and you could fit into one hand. Nowadays I laugh at those same boards but I also used to play on them with lots of enjoyment. My friend was way ahead of me and I never won a game against him but this still didn't really spark the interest.

There was another gentleman who was a club player who would come to play on the big board and he quickly became my role model. That's because in one game, before the start of the game, he told his opponent that he will checkmate him in 7 moves, and would you know it, that's exactly what happened. To me that was phenomenal.

So I started to take the game a little seriously, although I still hung the queen on every third move-as it were. We continued playing with my friend until one day when we were playing on the big board, my 'role model' was there and would you know it, I was getting demolished by my friend in front of a huge crowd. Losing was not really that painful, I was used to it because he was just better than me, it's what my 'role model' said that actually sparked a fire in me because as everyone was watching and shaking their heads, he said aloud: 'man just resign, or even better, retire.'

From that moment he ceased to be a role model and became an enemy and that's when I took the game seriously. I started reading about pieces and where best to place them(not really studying positions, just reading about the pieces). Then the following year I went to the Library and found one black book which had the title: THE CHESS PLAYER'S HANDBOOK.

A few months after this, early 2011, I started beating everyone in Varsity and I would play at the park and go undefeated for hours and hours until they no longer wanted to play against me. 2012 I played my first rated tournament which had the best players in South Africa, IM Mabusela, IM Rodwell Makoto and many others. I was rated 1000P, a thousand pounds probably. Lol
Fast forward to 2019 where I won my first major title, the KZN open ahead of a strong field. I stopped playing seriously for a few years whilst developing myself in the Word of God and then in 2023 I started playing again. Got my rating above 2000 and have won a few tournaments ahead of IM's, CM's and FM's.

Wilhelm Steinitz became world champion at the age of 50, you still have great potential to be just as good, if not better than him. The only limitations are those that you hold in your mind.