Comparison

Pulsar Chess Engine vs Chess Combinations Vol. 1

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

Head to head
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.

About

Chess Combinations Vol. 1

Master chess tactics with over 1300 exercises and interactive lessons. This program acts as a personal coach, providing hints, explanations, and refutations to improve your game. It tracks your ELO rating and offers a free section to test its capabilities.

Highlights
  • Over 1300 chess exercises
  • 40 tactical methods and motifs
  • Interactive theoretical lessons
  • Hints and explanations
  • Refutation of mistakes
  • ELO rating tracking
  • Offline functionality
Features
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The fundamental chess program for club players. This first part includes more than 1300 exercises (more than 200 examples to explore and 1100 to solve), classified in 40 tactical methods and motifs. This course is in the series Chess King Learn, which is an unprecedented chess teaching method. In the series are included courses in tactics, strategy, openings, middle game, and endgame, split by levels from beginners to experienced players, and even professional players. With the help of this course, you can improve your chess knowledge, learn new tactical tricks and combinations, and consolidate the acquired knowledge into practice. The program acts as a coach who gives tasks to solve and helps to solve them if you get stuck. It will give you hints, explanations and show you even striking refutation of the mistakes you might make. The program also contains a theoretical section, which explains the methods of the game in a certain stage of the game, based on actual examples. The theory is presented in an interactive way, which means you can not only read the text of the lessons, but also to make moves on the board and work out unclear moves on the board. Advantages of the program: • High quality examples, all double-checked for correctness • You need to enter all key moves, required by the teacher • Different levels of complexity of the tasks • Various goals, which need to be reached in the problems • The program gives hint if an error is made • For typical mistaken moves, the refutation is shown • You can play out any position of the tasks against the computer • Interactive theoretical lessons • Structured table of contents • The program monitors the change in the rating (ELO) of the player during the learning process • Test mode with flexible settings • Possibility to bookmark favorite exercises • The application is adapted to the bigger screen of a tablet • The application does not require an internet connection The course includes a free part, in which you can test the program. Lessons offered in the free version is fully functional. They allow you to test the application in real world conditions before releasing the following topics: 1. Win 1.1. Mate in 1 1.2. Double attack 1.3. Simultaneous attack 1.4. Discovered attack 1.5. Discovered attack with check 1.6. Discovered check 1.7. Mill 1.8. Double check 1.9. Linear attack 1.10. Absolute pin 1.11. Relative pin A 1.12. Relative pin B 1.13. Trap in the opening 1.14. Passed pawn 1.15. Intermediate move 1.16. Intermediate check 1.17. Counter attacking move 1.18. Zugzwang 1.19. Invasion 1.20. Irrefutable threat 1.21. Ambush 1.22. X-Ray 1.23. Gaining tempo 2. Draw 2.1. Theoretical draw 2.2. Stalemate 2.3. Desperado 2.4. Perpetual check 2.5. Perpetual attack 2.6. Perpetual threat 2.7. Positional draw 2.8. Fortress 2.9. Blocade 3. Combining tactical devices 3.1. Combining tactical devices 3.2. Exercises 1 3.3. Exercises 2 3.4. Exercises 3

Screenshots

Pulsar Chess Engine4 screens
Chess Combinations Vol. 14 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Chess Combinations Vol. 1 at Free against Pulsar Chess Engine's $1.99. Chess Combinations Vol. 1 also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 70%) and rating (4.7 vs 4.3). Pulsar Chess Engine's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1). On update cadence, ads and device support 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

Chess Combinations Vol. 1 is free to download; Pulsar Chess Engine costs $1.99 up front. Chess Combinations Vol. 1 sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Pulsar Chess Engine asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Chess Combinations Vol. 1 holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Chess Combinations Vol. 1 has 91 ratings behind it against 12, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 70% of Pulsar Chess Engine's written reviews are positive against 100% of Chess Combinations Vol. 1's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Pulsar Chess Engine ships an update every 2 months, Chess Combinations Vol. 1 every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on October 22, 2026 and October 21, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Pulsar Chess Engine versus Chess Combinations Vol. 1: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPulsar Chess EngineChess Combinations Vol. 1
Price$1.99Free — better
Rating4.3 (12 ratings)4.7 (91 ratings) — better
Positive reviews70.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings1291 — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 months — betterEvery 3 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidFree with in-app purchases — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — betteriPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.68.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size11 MB44 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperMichael AdamsChess King

Customer experience

Pulsar Chess Engine

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

Chess Combinations Vol. 1

All ratings89 ratings
Positive93.3%
Neutral3.4%
Negative3.4%
Written reviews18 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Pulsar Chess Engine

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

Chess Combinations Vol. 1

One-time1
  • Full course$12.99

Questions

Is Pulsar Chess Engine free?
Pulsar Chess Engine costs $1.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Chess Combinations Vol. 1 free?
Chess Combinations Vol. 1 is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Pulsar Chess Engine or Chess Combinations Vol. 1?
Chess Combinations Vol. 1 is rated higher. Pulsar Chess Engine averages 4.3 out of 5 from 12 ratings, while Chess Combinations Vol. 1 averages 4.7 from 91 ratings.
Do Pulsar Chess Engine or Chess Combinations Vol. 1 have ads?
Neither Pulsar Chess Engine nor Chess Combinations Vol. 1 shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Pulsar Chess Engine or Chess Combinations Vol. 1?
Pulsar Chess Engine ships an update every 2 months, and Chess Combinations Vol. 1 every 3 months. Most recently, Pulsar Chess Engine was updated on October 22, 2026 and Chess Combinations Vol. 1 on October 21, 2026.

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