The rating system used to measure the strength of chess players is named after which person?
- A.Arpad Elo
- B.Wilhelm Steinitz
- C.Emanuel Lasker
- D.Howard Staunton
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is A, Arpad Elo. Arpad Elo was a Hungarian-born American physics professor and a strong amateur player who designed a statistical method to compare players, and FIDE adopted it. Under the system a player gains rating points for defeating a higher-rated opponent and loses more points for losing to a lower-rated one, so the number tracks current strength rather than past titles. A rating of 2500 is one of the requirements for the Grandmaster title. Option B is wrong because Wilhelm Steinitz was the first official world champion, from 1886, not a rating theorist. Option C is wrong because Emanuel Lasker held the world title for twenty-seven years, the longest reign. Option D is wrong because Howard Staunton gave his name to the standard design of chess pieces used in tournaments.
Read the full article: Chess and Indian Grandmasters: Firsts, Titles and Records
Practice Questions
View allThe modern game of chess is believed to have developed from which ancient Indian game?
- A.Chaturanga
- B.Pachisi
- C.Gilli Danda
- D.Chausar
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Chaturanga was played in India in the Gupta age and its name means four limbs, standing for the four divisions of an ancient army: infantry, cavalry, elephants and chariots.
Read the full explanation →Who became the first Grandmaster of India?
- A.Pentala Harikrishna
- B.Viswanathan Anand
- C.Manuel Aaron
- D.Dibyendu Barua
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Anand, born in Mayiladuthurai and brought up in Chennai, earned the Grandmaster title in 1988 while still a teenager and became the first Indian to hold the highest lifetime title awarded by FIDE.
Read the full explanation →Who was the first Indian woman to be awarded the Grandmaster title?
- A.Koneru Humpy
- B.Dronavalli Harika
- C.Tania Sachdev
- D.Vaishali Rameshbabu
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Humpy, from Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh, earned the open Grandmaster title in 2002 while in her teens, and at that time she was the youngest woman in the world to have done so.
Read the full explanation →How many squares are there on a standard chessboard?
- A.36
- B.49
- C.64
- D.81
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A chessboard is a square divided into eight rows, called ranks, and eight columns, called files, so the number of squares is 8 multiplied by 8, that is 64.
Read the full explanation →In which year was FIDE, the international chess federation, founded?
- A.1912
- B.1924
- C.1936
- D.1951
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FIDE, the Federation Internationale des Echecs, was founded in Paris in 1924, and its motto is Gens una sumus, a Latin phrase meaning we are one people.
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