Several months ago Kaggle.com launched its first Elo competition, in which people worked to generate a better algorithm for ranking players to accurately predict their outcome in matches. That is, to improve the Elo ranking system as it pertains to competitive chess. Competitors in the Kaggle.com competition were given a data set, and told to build a system which would do better than the current system and all competitors. That contest was won by Yannis Sismanis with his system named 'Elo++.' Over 12 weeks, more than 200 teams competed trying to claim the prize, just $617. Yannis has an academic write up which discusses his method and new ranking system in an 8 page pdf.

While Yannis' method improved on the Elo method already, the competition caught FIDE's eye and they, partnered with a firm named Deloitte are now sponsoring another run of the competition with a $10,000 prize purse. This will be sure to draw more interest, more competition, and hopefully an even more improved ranking system.

Given that the DCI uses the Elo ranking system, this competition may have a trickle down to Magic players as there is the possibility of a new ranking system being adopted in the coming years.

About the Elo System: The Elo system was invented by Arpad Elo, a Hungarian immigrant to America who was a physics professor. It was invented specifically for chess competition but has been adopted for numerous other games and sports including Magic. Learn more at Wikipedia.