RIchard Zheng, a.k.a. TheDuck: FIDE Master of the Pond
RIchard Zheng plays online chess as TheDuck, holds the FIDE Master title, and owns perhaps the most accurate username in the game: placid on the surface, feet going a mile a minute underneath. The capital I in RIchard is not a typo. It is a statement.
The numbers back up the branding. TheDuck posts a comeback rate of 83.6% and wins 60% of games even after dropping a piece, which is chess-speak for water off a duck's back. Tilting this player appears to be against the laws of nature.
The Bullet Pond
In the autumn of 2025 TheDuck migrated: 1842 in September, 3000 by December, no layovers. Along the way came a 36-game winning streak, which in Bullet terms is less a streak and more a geological era. The peak eventually landed at 3002, meaning there are very few faster ducks anywhere in the pond.
Blitz: The Home Pond
Blitz is the preferred time control, and the duck took to it like, well. Debuting in February 2026 around 2300, TheDuck was poking at 2900 by spring and touched a peak of 2927 by September. The blitz toolkit is calmer than the bullet arsenal: English Opening structures, with the Caro-Kann Defensive System going 16-3-1 and the Agincourt Defense not far behind.
An Opening Repertoire from the Weird End of the Pond
As Black, the Caro-Kann Defense is the load-bearing wall: solid, unbothered, played in over 85 combined bullet and blitz games. When TheDuck gets the first move, though, normal chess leaves the building. In 2025 the opening move was 1.d4 in 129 games; in 2026 the duck flew south to 1.Nf3 in 96 of them. Same flock, new pond.
- Bird Opening: 79% in bullet, because 1.f4 is a personality.
- Amar Gambit: the single most-played bullet opening at 62 games, starting with a knight to the rim on move one. Duck confidence required.
- The Colle Rhamphorhynchus Variation: named after a pterosaur, scoring 77%, which is frankly show-off behavior.
- The Amazon Attack: 82% in bullet, with a Siberian branch lurking for ambushes.
- The Nimzo-Larsen Attack: 1.b3 on offense, plus a 90% win rate facing it as Black, so the duck controls the b-pawn chaos in both directions.
The Caro-Kann Exchange, the bread and breadcrumbs of the repertoire, tends to look like this:
Rivalries: Ducks, Geese, and One Gotham
No opponent has met TheDuck more often than Janak Awatramani, and after 76 games the score sits at 40-36 with zero draws, because nobody in that series has ever once considered peace. Meanwhile Eilia Zomorrodian has been quacked 40-2, LetsGo_Win 30-1, and yabbadabbadoooooooo is 0-15 with a single polite draw for decoration.
Every duck has a goose, though. Levy Rozman leads the head-to-head 10-5, making it the one recurring lily pad where TheDuck gets out-quacked. Consider it the duck's white whale, if the whale also had a YouTube channel and better opening prep.
Style: Grind Now, Quack Later
Wins for TheDuck average about 71 moves, and 81.4% of all games wander into an endgame, so this is not a duck that explodes. This is a duck that waddles you down for 70 moves until the pond has no edge. Early resignations are practically a rumor, and one-sided losses are rarer still.
Also, the duck checks. Across 699 analyzed games TheDuck delivered 2,000 checks, with the queen accounting for 666 of them, a number he insists is a coincidence and everyone else insists is a warning.
- Undefeated in rapid: one game, one win, a career 100% record that will absolutely be defended.
- Perfect win rate at 7, 8 and 9 in the morning, and 0% at 10 AM and 1 PM: do not book brunch chess.
- Friday is the best day (79% wins), Tuesday the worst (48%): schedule accordingly.
- Longest winning streak: 36 games.
- Wins 60% of games after losing material, mostly to make a point.
The name says it all: calm face, paddling feet, zero fear of deep water. Challenge TheDuck on a Friday morning at your own risk, and maybe bring bread.