[4] Then in 1997, she won the World Girls' (Under-20) Championship in Żagań,[5] at the end of a "year out" between school and her Plant Science studies at Cambridge University.

Her result of 6/11 was probably as good as could be expected in such a strong competition (the entry included over 30 grandmasters headed by Mikhail Gurevich, Jaan Ehlvest, Tony Miles, Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu, Suat Atalık, Sergei Tiviakov etc.).

By 1999, Hunt had attained the title of Woman Grandmaster and at the Batumi European Team Championship played board 1, returning a 7/9 performance to win the individual gold medal.

Pursuing an academic career, she commenced a PhD and research fellowship at Cambridge, specialising in archaeogenetics, a subject allied to her degree.

At the 2004 Chess Olympiad in Calvià, she narrowly missed out on a medal after scoring 9.5/13, for a rating performance of 2558, including a notable victory over Humpy Koneru.

Good results were also forthcoming in individual competition, including international tournaments at London (Agency), Cappelle-la-Grande, Berlin (Summer Festival), Stockholm (Rilton Cup) and Hastings.

The event was described by Hunt as one of the largest and best funded women's tournaments of all time and she performed well, finishing on 6½/9, a half-point behind overall winner Anna Muzychuk, whom she defeated in their personal encounter in round 6.