I did a little study on how long it has taken players to progress from their first published rating of 2600+ up to their first published rating of 2700+
Wei Yi will, when the March list is published, have gotten there in 1.33 years, the same amount of time it took Anish Giri. Wang Yue was faster though, at 1.25 years, and faster still were both Vladimir Kramnik and Maxime Vachiere-Lagrave, with a gap of exactly one year (1.00). Right behind this group, at 1.50 years is Magnus Carlsen and Alexei Shirov.
What about players who take longer? Hou Yifan has been languishing in the 2600 club for over four years now, without yet breaking the magical 2700 barrier (though she's awfully close after Gibraltar!) Is that bad? Not really. She's actually remarkably on par with Hikaru Nakamura (who took 4.25 years... hitting 2600 at 16.81 years old, and not hitting 2700 until 21.07). Hou turns 21 at the end of this month, was 16.91 years old when she first hit 2600, and currently has a live rating of 2686. A good performance in her next event and she might prove almost EXACTLY the equal of Naka, in terms of her path to 2700.
I have 89 players in my study (not fully comprehensive) who eventually did reach 2700+. 4.34 years is the median time gap from 2600 to 2700, with a mean of 5.61 years. So who is dragging that mean upward?
Ah, Nigel Short. Rated 2615 on the July 1986 rating list at the age of just 21.1 years old. So much promise. And ultimately he did follow through on that promise, with a published rating of 2701... in July 2003. A gap of 17 years! He got there though
Alexander Beliavsky is another one who took a while, hitting 2600 just after his 27th birthday, but not reaching 2700 until he was over 43.5! A 16.51 year gap (and I *believe* a record for the OLDEST age at which anyone has ever achieved their first 2700+ rating.)
Fun stuff, no?