Erigaisi remains on the heels of Gukesh; Pragg, Aravindh hit career-high in FIDE rankings

Arjun Erigaisi seems determined to reclaim his India No. 1 position from D Gukesh after closing the gap in FIDE rankings with the World Chess Champion.

Erigaisi gained nearly 5 points in FIDE's April Rating List that has taken him just five short of Gukesh (2787). He had lost his India No. 1 position to Gukesh by the end of January following their contrasting display at the Tata Steel Masters as Wijk aan Zee in the Netherlands. Gukesh finished runner-up in the event, while Erigaisi had a disastrous campaign, winning just two games out of 14.

Erigaisi had been in the 2800-Elo club before his decline in the New Year. However, the 21-year-old has produced a solid comeback, especially with four wins in the Bundesliga.

Gukesh remains World No. 3, with Erigaisi overtaking Fabiano Caruana to the fourth position. Hikaru Nakamura (2804) remains firm in the second position, while Magnus Carlsen's (2837) reign at the summit remains unchallenged since mid-2011.

Meanwhile, two other Indians hit their career-high rankings. R Praggnanandhaa (2758) displaced China's Wei Yi from the seventh position while Aravindh Chithambaram jumped into his best ever, 11th position with an incredible gain of 17.5 points.