Letter #07 -  2008

Sub:    Professor Arpad Elo
Date:  2/06/2008 1:14:00 A.M. MST
From:  Duncan McIntyre
To:      service@chess-poster.com

On your site, setting out the history of the FIDE, you say -

“The method of grading Chess players was invented and codified by a professor of mathematics Arpad Elo, retired in Wisconsin, U.S.A.”

That's not correct. As Professor Elo specifically acknowledged in the introduction to his report to FIDE, the method was invented by Roger Cook, a Chess player and mathematician, who had earlier used it to devise a grading system for the New South Wales Chess Association.

It was derived from principles that Cook had developed in his graduate thesis on measuring (logarithmically, as it happens) the significance of changes in rated events. Elo made a few changes to the way it was employed but he didn't invent, and he didn't claim to invent the method.

Duncan McIntyre
Sydney, Australia

Dear viewer,

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You may have to refresh the page on your browser to reflect these new changes.

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