Chess By Post vs Pulsar Chess Engine
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Chess By Post
Engage in correspondence chess with others worldwide. Challenge friends or compete in ranked matches against similarly skilled players. The app offers automatic notifications for pending moves and tracks your progress with an Elo rating system.
- Correspondence chess
- Ranked matches
- Skill-based matchmaking
- Chess puzzles
- End game analysis
- Move history explorer
- Local hand-off games
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Play correspondence chess with real people! Challenge your friends to friendly games or play ranked matches against random opponents of similar skill levels. Play as many simultaneous games as your want! Automatic push notifications will let you know when you have moves waiting! Improve your ranking by playing ranked games against comparable opponents. Skill ranking updates using the classic Elo rating system to adjust your rank when you win or lose. A leader board view shows you how you compare to the top players. Chess By Post is perfect for players of all skill levels because your matched opponent's skill level will be adapted based on your own skill level. Create a local hand-off game and play your friend by passing the phone back and forth. Play against a computer opponent that adjusts difficulty to match your skill level. Improve your skills by playing rated chess puzzles. Features: --------- -Tracks your skill level over time -Matches you with similar skilled opponents -Practice chess puzzles to improve your game -End game analysis shows you the critical mistakes made by each player -Head to head stats -Move History Statistics - Explore the moves of every game you ever played with an interactive board explorer -Freely move pieces to plan strategies -Take notes on games to remember strategies -In-game chat message board -In-game move histories for easy review -Ratings leader board -Local hand-off games can be played offline -Play games against a computer opponent with varied skill levels -Alphanumeric grid display
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.
- Plays 7 chess variants
- Adjustable AI difficulty levels
- Game logging and review
- Master game collections
- Crafty engine analysis
- VoiceOver accessibility
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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
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Chess By Post at Free against Pulsar Chess Engine's $1.99. Chess By Post also leads on ratings volume (255 vs 12) and review sentiment (80% vs 70%). Pulsar Chess Engine's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and update cadence (every 2 months vs every 6 months). On rating 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
Chess By Post 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.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.3 for Chess By Post against 4.3 for Pulsar Chess Engine. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Chess By Post has 255 ratings behind it against 12, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 80% of Chess By Post's written reviews are positive against 70% of Pulsar Chess Engine's.
Chess By Post ships an update every 6 months, Pulsar Chess Engine every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 12, 2026 and October 14, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Chess By Post | Pulsar Chess Engine |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $1.99 |
| Rating | 4.3 (255 ratings) | 4.3 (12 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 80.4% of reviews — better | 70.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 255 — better | 12 |
| Update frequency | Every 6 months | Every 2 months — better |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Ad-supported — better | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.6 | 15.6 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 38 MB | 11 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Games By Post LLC | Michael Adams |
Customer experience
Chess By Post
Pulsar Chess Engine
Bugs and requests
Chess By Post
Reported bugs
4 issues- Moves not registering correctly
- Game freezes/crashes
- Notification issues
- Rating/scoring problems
Requested features
5 requests- Shorter move time limits
- Friends/social features
- Ability to report/block abusive players
- Board orientation/view options
- Customizable game settings
Pulsar Chess Engine
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Chess By Post
No in-app purchases
Pulsar Chess Engine
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Chess By Post free?
Is Pulsar Chess Engine free?
Which has better reviews, Chess By Post or Pulsar Chess Engine?
Do Chess By Post or Pulsar Chess Engine have ads?
Which is updated more often, Chess By Post or Pulsar Chess Engine?
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