Interesting stuff! Thanks!
Elo
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Apr 15, 2018
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#3
Important chess history, and beautifully laid out here. Thank you Batgirl for researching and sharing this.
This is genius!! Now I can calculate my own Elo just for fun😁
Karpov had the highest tournament performance rating evah!
Although it typically goes without saying, it's hard to have a discussion about ratings without bringing up the way the bell curve is modeled. Much of the criticism of USCF's rating system attacks the way that rating "floors" are handled, and how players typically only face opponents within their own bracket; hence, lower-ranked players often have a difficult time making the transition to a higher bracket, while higher-ranked players can have a serious slump and yet, not fall from their current bracket. Elo addresses this by using an elegant formula to model a bell curve for the population of all players. His system is a much better approximation of skill level, not only because it respects the level of the player (through K value), but also because a player's rating reflects how they stack up against All players, not just their peer group.
We all know of Arpad Elo, the Milwaukee mathematician and physicist who developed a chess rating system in 1961 which improved upon the one created by Kenneth Harkness and, somewhat tweaked, is still used today in the USA. He also attempted to retro-rate pre-ratings players.
I thought it might be interesting to some to read his original work as published in "Chess Life" in April 1964 (Historic ratings) and in June 1961 (introduction to his system). I made some changes in the formatting of the content, but included all the information and images.
"Chess Life" June 1961
"Chess Life" April 1964