Arpad Elo

Arpad Emrick Elo (actually Hungarian Árpád Imre Élő ) ( born August 25, 1903 in Egyházaskesző at Papa; † November 5, 1992 in Brookfield at Milwaukee ) was an American physicist and statistician of Hungarian origin. He is the inventor of Elo.

Life

At the age of 10 he arrived as an immigrant from Hungary to the United States. After completing his studies in natural sciences at the University of Chicago, he taught from 1926 until his retirement in 1969 as professor of theoretical physics at Marquette University in Milwaukee. He was a chess player and won 1935-1961 eight times the championship of Wisconsin. From 1935 to 1937 he was President of the American Chess Federation, a predecessor organization of the United States Chess Federation ( USCF ).

Elo

From 1959 Elo developed his rating system in which the chess players, a so-called Elo rating is assigned based on statistical analysis of their previous tournament results that reflects their skill level and allows predictions about their chances of success against other players. From 1960, the system was initially well accepted by the world chess federation FIDE from the USCF and from 1970, which officially introduced the system on July 1, 1971. Elo led to 1980 the corresponding calculations for the FIDE by yourself. In his 1978 book The rating of chess players past and present, he turned his formula also retrospectively and determined Elo ratings for all major chess master from the mid-19th century.

Meanwhile, the Elo system has become world chess standard. However, it is also applied to the skill level measurement in other sports, such as in Go, and even in football. He himself said about the system he developed: Sometimes I think I have created Frankenstein's monster! The young players are more interested in the Elo rating as for the things on the board.

Works

• Arpad Elo: The Rating Of Chess Players, Past & Present. 1978, ISBN 0-668-04721-6