Arpad Elo facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Arpad Elo
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| Born |
Árpád Imre Élő
August 25, 1903 Egyházaskesző, Kingdom of Hungary (today in Hungary)
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| Died | November 5, 1992 (aged 89) |
| Nationality | Hungarian, American |
| Alma mater | University of Chicago |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physics |
| Institutions | Marquette University |
Arpad Emmerich Elo (born Árpád Imre Élő) was a smart Hungarian-American professor and chess master. He is famous for creating the Elo rating system, which helps rank players in games like chess.
Arpad Elo was born on August 25, 1903, in a place called Egyházaskesző, which was part of the Kingdom of Hungary. When he was 10 years old, in 1913, he moved to the United States with his family.
He became a professor of physics at Marquette University in Milwaukee. Besides being a scientist, Arpad Elo was also a very skilled chess master. In the 1930s, he was known as the best chess player in Milwaukee, which was a big chess city back then. He even won the Wisconsin State Chess Championship eight times!
Arpad Elo passed away on November 5, 1992, in Brookfield, Wisconsin.
The Elo Rating System: How It Works
Arpad Elo is best known for creating a special system to rank chess players. This system is called the Elo rating system. It helps figure out how strong a player is compared to others.
Before Elo's system, another system was used, created by Kenneth Harkness in 1950. Arpad Elo used the information from Harkness's system. By 1960, he had developed his own new formula. His formula was better because it was based on strong statistical ideas.
The United States Chess Federation liked his new rating system. They approved it at a meeting in St. Louis in 1960.
In 1970, FIDE, which is the World Chess Federation, decided to use the Elo Rating System for all international chess players. For many years, until the mid-1980s, Arpad Elo himself did all the calculations for the ratings. This was a big job, but it was easier back then because fewer than 2,000 players were rated by FIDE.
Later, FIDE gave the job of managing and calculating ratings to other people. They also added some new rules for how players could get a rating. Arpad Elo and others thought some of these new rules were not fair.
Books by Arpad Elo
Arpad Elo also wrote a book about his famous rating system:
- The Rating of Chess Players, Past and Present (First Edition 1978, Second Edition 1986), Arco. ISBN: 0-668-04721-6
See also
In Spanish: Árpád Emrick Élő para niños
