The gender gap in sport may be narrowing, but in the game of chess women may never reach the levels of their male counterparts - according to the world's best female player.

University of Oxford student Hou Yifan said the cerebral game won't get a female world champion for decades because women "are less focused" than men, don't train as hard and are at a physical disadvantage.

The 25-year-old, who is often referred to as the Queen of Chess', has opened a row in the normally genial world of chess.

Her comments follow a controversial claim by English Grandmaster Nigel Short that men and women should just accept they are “hard-wired very differently”.

Short, who was widely criticised for his stance, said he "would have been ripped to shreds as a misogynist dinosaur" if he'd said the same as Hou.