Pulsar Chess Engine vs Chessvis
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
Chessvis
Enhance your chess skills with unique visualization exercises, including blindfold chess and progressive move following. Prepare openings by focusing on common opponent moves and practice with spaced repetition. Access millions of categorized puzzles with customizable difficulty and rating controls.
- Unique visualized puzzles
- Blindfold chess training
- Opening repertoire preparation
- Progressive move following
- Customizable puzzle categories and ratings
- Offline puzzle access
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Chessvis is designed to help you get better at the game. Its unique, "found nowhere else", puzzle, blindfold chess and progressive move following exercises will sharpen your visualization skills. Now with Version 11, all puzzle exercises are free - including working offline. There's a new menuing system that makes navigating around the huge 'toolbox' of features much easier. The opening repertoire preparation routines are also unique focusing on the "moves you'll see" and finding the "moves that work". Plus you can pull in your own games to see what's working for you. And now, use AI to help uncover the opening that will work for you. Puzzles The Chessvis puzzle collection starts with millions of categorized and rated puzzles from Lichess and adds several unique features including: Category and Rating Control Chessvis lets you set both the category and rating of the puzzles you’re challenged with. Want to try easy forks one day and hard multiple move mates the next? Do it! You’ll never be forced to only do puzzles around some hypothetical rating you’ve “earned”. The entire puzzle collection is always available for you. Visualized Puzzles A unique feature of Chessvis is the "Visualized" puzzle. It presents a puzzle showing the diagram from some number of moves before the actual tactic sequence starts. You're told the number of moves to "visualize" and then solve the problem from a board position that only exists in your mind. This is what got Chessvis started and it’s the only app with it. Other Puzzle Collection Features The “no repeat pledge” - with such an extensive puzzle collection, Chessvis is able to make sure you don’t see the same puzzle twice. Want to focus on solving puzzles quickly? Turn on the timer. Going to be away from the internet? Pull puzzles down to your device and work off-line. See your puzzle history. Download the puzzles you’ve done. All that is in Chessvis. Opening Preparation Build your repertoires focusing on the "moves you'll see". Chessvis believes that you need to think about the moves your opponents actually play and not some complex way too deep repertoire designed by a master who doesn't play anything like the way you do. At ever step in the repertoire design process, Chessvis shows you the moves your opponents actually make and highlights ones you need to think about. Then once you've built your repertoire, practice it with daily spaced repetition. Blindfold Chess Play against the computer with "stepping stones" to help ease your way into blindfold chess. Start with all pieces sharing one color then go to two color disks, one shared color disk and then eventually an empty board. Subscribers had the stockfish and Maia chess engines to the free-to-use Komodo engine. Who’s Guarding Whom A deceptively simple visualization exercise that forces you to mentally track piece movements and how they interact. (No other app has this.) Move Following & Static Boards Track a sequence of moves and then update the board to that point. Or memorize a board layout, then recreate it. Start off easy with just a few pieces and work your way up. Analyze Your Games Download your chess.com and lichess.org games for opening analysis. See what you've been playing, what's been played against you and the results. Videos What better way is there than videos to see Chessvis in action? You can watch the videos within the app. They're all kept short and to the point. Chessvis has always had unique tools to visualize the chessboard and win more games. A famous chess coach said: "Don't think about the pieces being exchanged, visualize how the board will look when the pieces are gone". Move a piece and you affect two places. But it's illegal to physically move the piece and see the effects -- you must learn to visualize. Chessvis is designed to help with that process. Download it today. Our Terms of Service can be found at: https://www.chessvis.com/tos.php
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Chessvis at Free against Pulsar Chess Engine's $1.99. Pulsar Chess Engine's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 3). On rating, review sentiment, ratings volume and update cadence 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
Chessvis is free to download; Pulsar Chess Engine costs $1.99 up front. Chessvis sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. Pulsar Chess Engine asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.3 for Pulsar Chess Engine against 4.4 for Chessvis. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 12 and 21 respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 70% and 70% positive.
Pulsar Chess Engine ships an update every 2 months, Chessvis monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 14, 2026 and October 5, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Pulsar Chess Engine | Chessvis |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $1.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.3 (12 ratings) | 4.4 (21 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 70.0% of reviews | 70.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 12 | 21 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Monthly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Paid | Freemium — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.6 | 15.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 11 MB | 38 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Michael Adams | Conceptual Software, Inc. |
Customer experience
Pulsar Chess Engine
Chessvis
In-app purchases
Pulsar Chess Engine
No in-app purchases
Chessvis
- Chessvis Monthly Subscription$3.991 Month
- Chessvis Annual Subscription$29.991 Year
- Chessvis Perpetual$99.99
Questions
Is Pulsar Chess Engine free?
Is Chessvis free?
Which has better reviews, Pulsar Chess Engine or Chessvis?
Do Pulsar Chess Engine or Chessvis have ads?
Which is updated more often, Pulsar Chess Engine or Chessvis?
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