Pulsar Chess Engine vs Chess Puzzles & Tactics
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.
Chess Puzzles & Tactics
Enhance your chess skills with an extensive collection of puzzles and tactical exercises. Tailor your training by customizing puzzle difficulty and Elo ratings to target specific weaknesses and accelerate improvement, suitable for players of all levels.
- Infinite chess puzzles
- Tactics training
- Customizable puzzles
- Elo rating adjustment
- All player levels
- Extensive tactic list
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Solve interactive chess positions on the board and find the correct continuation. Train tactics, mating patterns, and endgames. Choose the categories or motifs you want to practice, then set a puzzle Elo range or difficulty that fits your target session. Built for chess players from beginner through advanced. Practice familiar ideas such as forks, pins, skewers, discovered attacks, sacrifices, promotion, and zugzwang. Develop pattern recognition and calculation through focused puzzle practice.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Chess Puzzles & Tactics at Free against Pulsar Chess Engine's $1.99. Chess Puzzles & Tactics also leads on update cadence (weekly vs every 2 months) and ratings volume (488 vs 12). Pulsar Chess Engine's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and ads (none vs shown). On rating, review sentiment, device support and iOS requirement 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 Puzzles & Tactics is free to download; Pulsar Chess Engine costs $1.99 up front. Chess Puzzles & Tactics sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. 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 4.5 for Chess Puzzles & Tactics. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Chess Puzzles & Tactics has 488 ratings behind it against 12, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 70% of Pulsar Chess Engine's written reviews are positive against 76% of Chess Puzzles & Tactics's.
Pulsar Chess Engine ships an update every 2 months, Chess Puzzles & Tactics weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 29, 2026 and October 27, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Pulsar Chess Engine | Chess Puzzles & Tactics |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $1.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.3 (12 ratings) | 4.5 (488 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 70.0% of reviews | 75.7% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 12 | 488 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Weekly — better |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Paid | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.6 | 15.1 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 11 MB | 89 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Michael Adams | Sajed Nahian |
Customer experience
Pulsar Chess Engine
Chess Puzzles & Tactics
Bugs and requests
Pulsar Chess Engine
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Chess Puzzles & Tactics
Reported bugs
18 issues- Unable to login
- Application resets to starting value (1000elo)
- History/review chapters remain unlocked
- In-application feedback not functioning
- Rating feature broke
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- Ability to control puzzle strength broke
- Scanning thing after opening app continues forever
- App resets ELO to 1000
- Undo button disappears
- Tapping to select a piece stops working
- Analysis breaks
- Viewing history doesn’t work
- App crashes
- View History tab page never loads
- App forgets login and starts from ELO = 0
- Analysis button messed up
- App hangs after pressing 'log in'
- Puzzles freeze, no way of moving pieces
Requested features
4 requests- Option to mute sounds
- Ability to disable audio
- Allow loading custom puzzle sets
- Better interface and cable
In-app purchases
Pulsar Chess Engine
No in-app purchases
Chess Puzzles & Tactics
- Ad-Free Forever$3.99
Questions
Is Pulsar Chess Engine free?
Is Chess Puzzles & Tactics free?
Which has better reviews, Pulsar Chess Engine or Chess Puzzles & Tactics?
Do Pulsar Chess Engine or Chess Puzzles & Tactics have ads?
Which is updated more often, Pulsar Chess Engine or Chess Puzzles & Tactics?
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