 Then in 1997, she won the World Girls' (Under-20) Championship in Żagań, at the end of a "year out" between school and her Plant Science studies at Cambridge University.In Pula the same year and by then a Woman International Master, she scored 5/7 on board 2 at the European Team Chess Championship and this contributed to the English Ladies Team's third-place finish and a team bronze medal.1997 was also the year that Hunt was invited by chess organiser Johan Zwanepol to compete at the Groningen Open Grandmaster tournament.