Comparison

Pulsar Chess Engine vs Botvinnik

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
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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.

About

Botvinnik

Explore over 1000 chess games from a legendary player, with interactive quizzes and lessons. Improve your tactical skills and strategic understanding through a structured learning method. Play against the computer and track your ELO rating.

Highlights
  • 1069 Botvinnik games
  • 350 interactive quiz positions
  • Personalized coach feedback
  • Interactive theoretical lessons
  • ELO rating tracking
  • Offline play
Features
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The most complete collection of Botvinnik's games ever compiled. Contains as many as 1069 chess games played by Botvinnik from 1924 till 1970. Special section, "Play as Botvinnik" with 350 quiz positions for you to try and find those strong and beautiful moves played by Botvinnik in his games. This course is in the series Chess King Learn (https://learn.chessking.com/), 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. Mikhail Botvinnik 1.1. 1924-1926 1.2. 1926 1.3. 1926-1927 1.4. 1927 1.5. 1927-1929 1.6. 1929 1.7. 1930 1.8. 1930-1931 1.9. 1931 1.10. 1932 1.11. 1932-1933 1.12. 1933 1.13. 1934 1.14. 1934-1935 1.15. 1935 1.16. 1936 1.17. 1937 1.18. 1938 1.19. 1939 1.20. 1940 1.21. 1941 1.22. 1943 1.23. 1943-1944 1.24. 1944 1.25. 1945 1.26. 1946 1.27. 1947 1.28. 1948 1.29. 1951 1.30. 1952 1.31. 1953 1.32. 1954 1.33. 1955 1.34. 1956 1.35. 1957 1.36. 1958 1.37. 1959 1.38. 1960 1.39. 1961 1.40. 1961-1962 1.41. 1962 1.42. 1963 1.43. 1964 1.44. 1965 1.45. 1966 1.46. 1966-1967 1.47. 1967 1.48. 1968 1.49. 1969 1.50. 1970 2. Opening 3. Combinations 3.1. Pawn combinations 3.2. Exploiting bad positions of opponent's pieces 3.3. Mating combinations 4. Tactical blows 4.1. Intermediate moves 4.2. "Small" combinations 4.3. Forced variations 4.4. Refuting a trap by "falling" into it 5. Attack on the king 5.1. Attack on the uncastled king 5.2. Both opponents castled to the same side 5.3. Opposite side castling 6. Positional play 6.1. Creating and exploiting weaknesses in the opponent's camp 6.2. Improving one's own pieces' positions 6.3. Exploiting bad positions of opponent's pieces 6.4. Blockade 6.5. Beneficial exchanges 6.6. Prevention 6.7. Positional sacrifices 6.8. Attack in the center and on the Q-side 6.9. Changing a pawn structure, breakthrough, opening up files 7. Defense 7.1. Counterattack 7.2. Exchange 7.3. Transposing into a technical ending 8. Converting a material advantage into a win 9. Maneuvering 10. Traps 11. Simple positions 12. Endings 12.1. Multi-piece endings 12.2. Pawn endings 12.3. Rook endings 12.4. Endings with four rooks 12.5. Knight endings 12.6. Bishop endings

Screenshots

Pulsar Chess Engine4 screens
Botvinnik4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Botvinnik at Free against Pulsar Chess Engine's $1.99. Botvinnik also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 70%) and rating (4.6 vs 4.3). Pulsar Chess Engine's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and update cadence (every 2 months vs every 7 months). On ratings volume, 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

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

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Botvinnik holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 4.3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 12 and 8 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 70% of Pulsar Chess Engine's written reviews are positive against 100% of Botvinnik's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Pulsar Chess Engine ships an update every 2 months, Botvinnik every 7 months. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 2, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Pulsar Chess Engine versus Botvinnik: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPulsar Chess EngineBotvinnik
Price$1.99Free — better
Rating4.3 (12 ratings)4.6 (8 ratings) — better
Positive reviews70.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings12 — better8
Update frequencyEvery 2 months — betterEvery 7 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — betteriPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.68.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size11 MB48 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%

Botvinnik

All ratings8 ratings
Positive87.5%
Neutral12.5%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Pulsar Chess Engine

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

Botvinnik

One-time1
  • Full Course$3.99

Questions

Is Pulsar Chess Engine free?
Pulsar Chess Engine costs $1.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Botvinnik free?
Botvinnik is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Pulsar Chess Engine or Botvinnik?
Botvinnik is rated higher. Pulsar Chess Engine averages 4.3 out of 5 from 12 ratings, while Botvinnik averages 4.6 from 8 ratings.
Do Pulsar Chess Engine or Botvinnik have ads?
Neither Pulsar Chess Engine nor Botvinnik shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Pulsar Chess Engine or Botvinnik?
Pulsar Chess Engine ships an update every 2 months, and Botvinnik every 7 months. Most recently, Pulsar Chess Engine was updated on November 1, 2026 and Botvinnik on November 2, 2026.

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