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What does the acronym ELO stand for in the context of chess, as in the ELO rating system?

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It doesn't stand for anything at all, because it's not an acronym. It should be "Elo" rather than "ELO." The Elo rating system is named after the Hungarian-American physics professor (and 8-time state champion chess master) Arpad Elo, who originally devised his rating system around 1960.

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    On a side note: There are predecessors to Arpad Elo's system, for example the "Ingo-Zahl" used already in 1947 in Germany. (And still being used by the german xiangqi-players for some reason …)
    – BlindKungFuMaster
    Dec 5, 2014 at 9:51
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    @BlindKungFuMaster, I'd not heard of that before. Gracias.
    – ETD
    Feb 1, 2016 at 4:37

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