Comparison

Shredder Chess Lite vs Pulsar Chess Engine

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Shredder Chess Lite

Play chess against a world champion program that mimics human play and makes mistakes at lower levels. Solve puzzles, track your progress, and get advice to improve your game. Features adjustable difficulty and a built-in coach.

Highlights
  • Adjustable playing strength
  • 100 built-in chess puzzles
  • Coach warns of mistakes
  • Elo rating calculation
  • Opening book with over 1 million moves
  • Two player mode
Features
Read full description

Shredder, the most successful chess program ever, is now also available for the iPhone. You can play against Shredder and solve chess puzzles. It offers the usual Shredder standard for your pocket. The 12 times computer chess world champion Shredder is able to mimic the play of a human chess player with any playing strength. He even deliberately makes typical human mistakes in those levels. Solve 100 built in chess puzzles. Shredder keeps track of your performance and offers advice if needed. You can adjust Shredder’s playing strength and, if you like, Shredder automatically adjusts his strength to yours. He even calculates an Elo rating for you. This is how the playing strength of chess players is typically measured. During the game a coach is watching your moves and warns you if you are about to make a mistake. See how you are getting better and better the more games you play and the more chess puzzles you solve. Shredder Chess Lite features: * Adjustable playing strength * Intuitive and very easy to operate * 100 built in chess puzzles * See your rating in a diagram * Coach shows your mistakes * Great variety: opening book with more than one million moves * Load and save games (incl. names, date, etc.) * Different chess boards and pieces * two player mode / enter moves * Learn the name of the opening you are playing * Accessibility / VoiceOver support * Improve your play whenever and wherever you like 'Shredder Chess Lite' is a fully-functional version of 'Shredder Chess' for casual chess players. If you are an active player, need more features or simply want the best you should take a look at our pro version 'Shredder Chess'. Here is what you will additionally get in our pro version: * The strongest chess engine for the iPhone * Can be set to outstanding playing strength * 1000 built in chess puzzles * Send games via email * Different playing styles from passive to aggressive * Enter and analyze any position you like * Analyse your games with Shredder, find your mistakes and improve your play * 10 USD discount coupon for Shredder 13 Mac/Win on shredderchess.com

About

Pulsar Chess Engine

Play chess and six popular variants with adjustable AI difficulty levels. Review logged games, access master game collections, and utilize Crafty engine analysis for standard chess and Chess960. Offers accessibility features for blind users.

Highlights
  • Plays 7 chess variants
  • Adjustable AI difficulty levels
  • Game logging and review
  • Master game collections
  • Crafty engine analysis
  • VoiceOver accessibility
Features
Read full description

The Pulsar Chess Engine plays Chess and six variants all with multiple levels. The variants are Chess960, Crazyhouse, Loser's, Atomic, Three Checks and Giveaway. Rules included in-app. In addition, there is also a review mode to look at the user's log file with analysis available for non variants. 10 game collections of classic and modern master games are included to look at including Kasparov, Fischer, Carlsen, Capablanca and Morphy 1858 collections. These collections and the log file are searchable. Pulsar values mobility and active positions. In app there is an article with more on its playing style and how to train against it. With the variants, each has its own style. Chess960, Three Checks and Crazyhouse are the more chess like variants and adoptable to learn to play for anyone with interest. The rules of all games are in app. Pulsar has levels of play from beginner too advanced. Games with a time control are the hardest though Pulsar doesn't call the player's time. The time is more to handicap Pulsar's strength, but users will have a clock and can see if it's gone negative if they want to play the time control. The game button - configure game menu item, lets the user control the variant and difficulty. It defaults to Chess at Easy(lowest level) but remembers the current settings when the App restarts. There are choices of pieces and board color schemes. The Pulsar program was originally developed by me for computers starting in 1998 and came to mobile for the first time in 2014. Pulsar's board is accessible to the blind using Voice Over, a screen reader. Tap on a square and it will say whats on it and double tap to move or choose from three move methods. A screen reader can normally read anything with text like a button, but a board is a collection of images. To make it accessible, text must be returned to Voice Over when a tap is in the area of a square. Pulsar began as a chess program and later learned variants. It ran extensively on two servers for many years both at chess and variants. The ratings on the board reflect strength I saw in rated play on handicapped bots. They are not 100% exact but generalizations I made from the various bots I ran at different settings. If in the new game selector, Play vs. Computer is unchecked the user can move for both sides. This is to allow two people at same location to use the App as a board for a game and have the app enforce move legality and results for whatever variant is selected.

Screenshots

Shredder Chess Lite4 screens
Pulsar Chess Engine4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Shredder Chess Lite at Free against Pulsar Chess Engine's $1.99. Shredder Chess Lite also leads on review sentiment (79% vs 70%) and iOS requirement (10.0 vs 15.6). Pulsar Chess Engine's advantage is rating (4.3 vs 4.0) and update cadence (every 2 months vs every 7 months). On ratings volume, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Shredder Chess Lite is free to download; Pulsar Chess Engine costs $1.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Pulsar Chess Engine holds the better App Store score, 4.3 against 4.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 20 and 12 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 79% of Shredder Chess Lite's written reviews are positive against 70% of Pulsar Chess Engine's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Shredder Chess Lite ships an update every 7 months, Pulsar Chess Engine every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 16, 2026 and October 14, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Shredder Chess Lite versus Pulsar Chess Engine: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterShredder Chess LitePulsar Chess Engine
PriceFree — better$1.99
Rating4.0 (20 ratings)4.3 (12 ratings) — better
Positive reviews78.9% of reviews — better70.0% of reviews
Number of ratings20 — better12
Update frequencyEvery 7 monthsEvery 2 months — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree — betterPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better
Requires iOS10.0 — better15.6
Further details — not scored
Size24 MB11 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperEiko Bleicher, Skizzix.comMichael Adams

Customer experience

Shredder Chess Lite

All ratings20 ratings
Positive70.0%
Neutral10.0%
Negative20.0%
Written reviews166 reviews
Positive78.9%
Neutral5.4%
Negative15.7%

Pulsar Chess Engine

All ratings12 ratings
Positive83.3%
Neutral8.3%
Negative8.3%
Written reviews30 reviews
Positive70.0%
Neutral10.0%
Negative20.0%

Bugs and requests

Shredder Chess Lite

Reported bugs

11 issues
  • Pawns moving sideways or diagonally without capturing
  • Pawns captured by opponent pawns when not adjacent
  • Illegal moves allowed by computer player
  • App crashes on iOS 8 and later versions
  • App won't open or load on startup
Show 6 more
  • Freezing after puzzle completion
  • Crashes when accessing advanced settings
  • Game crashes every second or third game on OS4
  • Incompatibility with iPhone 3GS and older devices
  • Checkmate detection errors
  • Puzzle mode incorrectly marking valid moves as invalid

Requested features

10 requests
  • Full screen optimization for modern iPhones
  • Time delay option before computer moves
  • Multiplayer mode for human vs human play
  • HD/universal app for iPad compatibility
  • Detailed explanations for puzzle solutions
Show 5 more
  • Higher difficulty levels in free version
  • Alternative board colors (red pieces option)
  • Dynamic hints like Fritz offers
  • Better endgame analysis
  • Improved board and piece design for clarity

Pulsar Chess Engine

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Shredder Chess Lite

No in-app purchases

None

Pulsar Chess Engine

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Shredder Chess Lite free?
Shredder Chess Lite is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Pulsar Chess Engine free?
Pulsar Chess Engine costs $1.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Shredder Chess Lite or Pulsar Chess Engine?
Pulsar Chess Engine is rated higher. Shredder Chess Lite averages 4.0 out of 5 from 20 ratings, while Pulsar Chess Engine averages 4.3 from 12 ratings.
Do Shredder Chess Lite or Pulsar Chess Engine have ads?
Neither Shredder Chess Lite nor Pulsar Chess Engine shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Shredder Chess Lite or Pulsar Chess Engine?
Shredder Chess Lite ships an update every 7 months, and Pulsar Chess Engine every 2 months. Most recently, Shredder Chess Lite was updated on October 16, 2026 and Pulsar Chess Engine on October 14, 2026.

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