Qi b Chen: International Master, Bullet Menace
Qi b Chen, known to the online chess world by the handle Lanshou, is a FIDE-titled International Master with nearly 9,000 games logged since 2015. Comfortable at any speed, Chen is most dangerous when the clock is nearly empty, which makes bullet chess the natural habitat and everyone else's least favorite matchup.
The Long Grind
The Lanshou account opened in November 2015 with modest numbers and big ambitions. The climb was steady rather than flashy: thousands of blitz games, years spent grinding through the 2300s and 2400s, and a first serious brush with 2700 territory by 2019. Along the way the blitz peak reached 2776 (2020-02-04). The 2023 campaign deserves special mention: exactly one game played, one game won, a perfect season by any reasonable standard.
The 2025 Bullet Breakout
Then came late 2025, and it was spectacular. In November alone, Lanshou played 108 bullet games, won 79 of them, and rocketed from the mid-2600s past 2850. December kept the foot down: 196 more games, 127 more wins, and a personal-best bullet rating of 2987 (2025-12-12), with the live number hovering near 2950. Add a 19-game winning streak en route, and you have one of the great late-career surges in online chess.
The Repertoire: Najdorf Devotion and Oddball Weapons
The backbone of Chen's play is the Sicilian Defense: Najdorf Variation, contested in hundreds of games with both colors. The classic move order, for anyone hoping to copy the homework:
- The Caro-Kann Defense as a sturdy alternate answer to 1.e4
- The Ruy Lopez: Berlin Defense, Berlin Wall included, for opponents who enjoy long walks
- The Blackburne Shilling Gambit, deployed exactly 100 times with a perfectly even 50 percent score, which is either trolling or peer-reviewed science
- The gloriously named Rhamphorhynchus Variation of the Colle, a pterodactyl hiding inside an opening otherwise famous for being quiet
- Assorted spice: the Amazon Attack: Siberian Attack, the Amar Gambit, the Döry Defense, and the Alekhine Defense
Nemeses and Familiar Faces
Every grinder has a nemesis, and Chen's is Li Yankai. The head-to-head stands at 282 games, with Chen trailing 90 wins to 160 losses, a deficit that has somehow failed to discourage anyone from scheduling game number 283. Other regular dance partners include Di Li, Dai Changren Dai Changren, Tingjie Lei, and cpslovsky, the rare opponent against whom Chen actually leads the series, at 51 wins to 33.
Style, Habits, and Hazard Warnings
- Extremely hard to put away: an 87.6 percent comeback rate suggests Chen rarely waves the white flag while there is play left in the position
- An endgame grinder by volume, with long technical grinds the norm rather than the exception
- Prime time is 17:00, where the win rate climbs above 61 percent. The 16:00 hour is where hope goes to die, so schedule challenges accordingly
- A tilt factor of just 12, meaning a bad streak ends long before it becomes a bad evening
- Checks with the queen more than any other piece, and usually gets there first
The Bottom Line
An International Master with a FIDE title, a decade of online mileage, and a 2025 bullet surge that turned Lanshou into one of the fastest guns on the site. If the clock is ticking, the eval bar is subtle, and the board says Sicilian, there is a decent chance you are already lost.