Do you feel that you need a laptop to improve or a tablet is good enough (2200 to 2400/2500)?

I play and analyse and read books on an iPad., and it works superbly for my needs.

In terms of raw computing power, a recent model iPad would likely run rings around your old laptop, and it would be no slouch compared to current cheapish laptops either. If you are prepared to buy an expensive laptop or desktop you can get significantly more processing power than an iPad though.

Notes on using an iPad versus computer…

- iPad is super convenient and comfortable to use
- Engines running on iPad might be Elo 2900-3000 “only”…do you need more?
- Want to properly run Leela on your device? Need a computer with an expensive high end graphics card.
- Things like drawing arrows on diagrams can need a mouse, though bluetooth mice for tablets do exist
- Want to type up lots of prose annotations? A computer keyboard is a lot more productive to work with.
- Chess database software is nonexistent for iPads. There is a a Chessbase iPad app, but it is almost useless.
- You can easily look at two things side by side on a computer screen, not so much on an iPad
- Do you need a computer anyway, for non-chess reasons, such as working from home?

Some words on Android tablets versus iPad…

- Android tablets can be bought for cheap, but the cheap ones have much less processing power than an iPad
- Chessbase Android app is actually really good! Very nice way to find and play through games, look at opening lines, check out player repertoires etc. Still a long way short of the PC version I believe, but 5% of the price maybe!

I think if you are a typical club player, an iPad is an excellent choice. If you are a GM then you probably need to work on a computer.

Kasparov was user #1 at ChessBase and the inventor/developer Matthias Wüllenweber asked Garri to announce his wishes/needs. Just sayin‘^^

I sold my iPad some years ago. Don’t need it.

#1
I do feel so.
Well, I mostly play on smartphone. And when I use laptop for some work, I open Lichess there. And playing on laptop seems better though I prefer smartphone. I used to play on tablet until it lost it's touch ability and became dysfunctional.

Kasparov help with the introduction of Chessbase. I have an Atari ST and I remember hearing about Chessbase.

Here is a link to the article:

en.chessbase.com/post/kasparov-and-the-start-of-chessbase

Saw this by accident:

www.instagram.com/p/CQ8e0VSBHmB/

Thank you all for your replies! Yes, I am an amateur but I would like to improve and I am willing to invest money and time for it.

I don't need a laptop for any other task apart from chess.

Thank you Jagdip in particular for the comparison between laptop and tablets, this was exactly what I needed. And thank you Sargon , Jose and DrZwischenzug for the useful comments.

I think to improve I will try to work with books and a real chessboard so probably for now I will go with tablet/e-reader plus chessboard. As I improve, I would like to work harder on chess (i.e. try to find novelties etc) but I guess for now is not so important.

For people commenting that in the past people have less tools. This is not really relevant. Obviously if I was as strong as Fisher or Morphy I would be able to make progresses without anything but I was more wondering what people at my strength can do to improve