rating period with third place at Hastings and second place at the National "A" Championship in Mumbai. He shared second place with Vasilios Kotronias and Paul Motwani in the 2003 British Championships then shared first with Vasily Yemelin, Smbat Lputian and Pavel Kotsur in Abu Dhabi. Pentala's form continued with shared second at the Sharjah Open half a point behind Kotsur, shared seventh at the Parsvanth Open, shared fifth at the Tata Open and second at the Asian Zonal 3.1b tournament held in Dhaka, a point behind Surya Shekhar Ganguly and shared third at GibTelecom Masters, a point behind Nigel Short. A few months later he came sixth on tiebreaks (a dozen players tied half a point behind Shakriyar Mamedyarov at the strong Dubai Open. Between the January 2003 and October 2005 rating lists, Pentala experienced a steady increase from 2539 to 2673, reaching 2600 in July 2004. Pentala was eliminated out of the FIDE World Chess Championship 2004, held in Tripoli in the second round after rapid tiebreaks 3-1 against Vasily Ivanchuk but bounced back with fourth place on tiebreaks at the Abu Dhabi Open, half a point behind Dmitry Bocharov. He came third in the Pune Super GM event, a point behind winner Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu but winning their individual game and was solid for India at the Chess Olympiad. This string of performances culminated in winning the World Junior Chess Championship held in Kochi, India in November 2004, scoring 10/13 with Tigran L Petrosian and Zhao Jun half a point behind. 2005–2009 Such success saw invitations to stronger events, such as Bermuda in early 2005 where despite losing to Boris Gelfand in the eighth round, victory in the two last rounds enabled him to catch up with him to tie for first, followed by an even score at Dos Hermanas and fifth on tiebreak at HB Global Challenge. Pentala joined up with former Viswanathan Anand coach Elizbar Ubilava, looking to improve his game. He then won the Sanjin Hotel Cup, a point clear of the field with 8.5/11. He tied for second at the Mainz Ordiz Open. An even result at the Lausanne Masters was followed up by winning the Essent Crown Group in October 2005, scoring 4/6. December's Chess World Cup 2005 saw Pentala defeat Yu Shaoteng 3-1 and Giovanni Vescovi 4-2 before being knocked out in the third round against Alexei Dreev 2.5-1.5, then tied for