Undergrad Helps Lead Team USA to Historic High at Chess Olympiad for Players with Disabilities

Math major Pranav Shankar made his overseas chess debut as team reaches its best-ever finish

In the high-stakes world of competitive chess, time pressure is constant, blunders are fatal and fans are always watching online.

In other words, it is what Pranav Shankar, 19, a Rutgers sophomore math major and member of America's national chess team, considers the recipe for a perfect week.

From Sept. 10-17, Shankar and four teammates helped lead Team USA to a fourth-place finish at the 2026 Chess Olympiad for People with Disabilities, held in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. The event brought together teams from 36 countries, and fourth was the best finish in Team USA history. It was also Shankar's in-person debut at the international level.

As the U.S. Chess Federation wrote in a tournament summary, "Shankar's wins in round 5 and 7 proved crucial to USA's strong finish."

Chess has always been more than a game for the Clinton, New Jersey resident. Born in India and diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder as a child, Shankar was first introduced to chess as an educational tool to help him work with others.

"I was taught chess jointly by my dad and a teacher between kindergarten and third grade," he said. "When I was a little kid, I was very impulsive and didn't know how to take turns," a skill that chess helped him develop.

By fourth grade, Shankar's interest in the game had become more serious. He started training at a nearby chess academy while attending the Newmark School for special needs children in Scotch Plains, N.J.

There, he played in rated games. Once his rating reached 1000, he began entering tournaments along the East Coast.

Between 2016 and 2019, his skills improved rapidly. By August 2019, his rating stood at 1499.

The COVID-19 pandemic put a brake on his progress. Forced to play online, where he was prone to making what he called "impulsive, fast moves," his rating flatlined for about two years.

"The computer accelerates the impulsivity," he said.

As the pandemic lockdowns eased and in-person play resumed, his growth accelerated. By January 2025, his rating had peaked, reaching an impressive 2083.

Today, Shankar is acutely self-aware of his chess strengths and weaknesses.

"Sometimes I play bad openings or I'm afraid of giving up material," he said. "I play gambits purposefully giving up something for strategic reasons, then often panic and make rushed moves."

That awareness has helped him remain at the top of his game. Before competing in Uzbekistan, Shankar participated in the inaugural FIDE Online Olympiad for People with Disabilities, in 2020, where Team USA took top honors. He participated in the National High School Championships in 2023, where he played the eventual winner in a close game.

When he's not competing, he stays sharp playing with the Rutgers-New Brunswick Chess Club. He has also taught chess for the Hunterdon County Library system, passing along the game that helped him as a child.

Chess is not Shankar's only passion. He plays an impressive piano and was a winner at the National Guild Piano Auditions in 2020.

But his first love is math, and his dream job is to be a college professor.

Shankar took math classes at Rutgers before enrolling as an undergraduate. After finishing the entirety of his high school's math curriculum - including Advanced Placement Calculus and multivariable calculus - by the end of ninth grade, he needed a new challenge. So, he took two years of evening honors math classes in New Brunswick. He was 16.

As a freshman, he completed two graduate math courses in Algebra and before starting his sophomore year, passed the PhD qualification exam for the discipline. At Rutgers, he's found a community within the math department, and he credits math professors Lisa Carbone and Lev Borisov with guiding and supporting him during his academic journey. He also credits Zachary Brown, his coordinator at Rutgers' Office of Disability Services, who has been a trusted resource throughout his time at the university.

He is now co-authoring a paper on the prime density of Kac-Moody integer sequences and working on its formalization in Lean, a proof assistant and programming language.

Still, chess helps ground Shankar in life, and in his studies. Playing helps keep his "brain sharp," he said, and helps him visualize his goal.

"In math, when you're trying to attack a problem that nobody else has ever solved, you have to game out a strategy - just like in chess," he said.

It is an approach that served Team USA well in Uzbekistan. Shankar played in four of seven rounds, including the final. His record: two wins, a draw and a loss.

"Two of my opponents were ranked much higher than me," he said, proudly.

More than a month after returning home, the buzz hadn't worn off. Asked how it felt to have helped the U.S. team to a historic finish, he was still pinching himself.

"Even at the airport I saw all the banners saying, 'Samarkand 2026,'" he said. "I never imagined being a VIP at all, anywhere, but being a VIP for playing chess in an Olympiad? It was great."