both are good

I agree. Positional chess is deep with many fine nuances. I can't appreciate what Karpov does yet when he plays, as an example, but I can appreciate good music at a very high level, as I am a music teacher.

I'm a beginner who is seeing repetitive tactics/patterns in the openings of live blitz games at chess.com and I'm bumfuzzled as to what to do about it. I fell below 800 in my rating and don't feel that the ten or so books I have are helping me in playing a better game.

Black's knight swoops down on the kingside to fork my king and rook...as an example. I must be doing something wrong in the opening for this to happen. Once, I did have time to move my rook from the h to g file to stop the fork.

I'd like to hear some tales of tactics in the opening that 1. disrupt pawn structures, 2. pin-skewer-fork-trap pieces, 3. crush the confidence of one's opponent after ten or so moves. I'd like to give someone with a 1000-1200 rating a hard time soon. How long do I need to wait? I have time to practice.

I'm tired of middle and end game puzzles. Any suggestions for developing an attacking style of play in the opening? I am far too passive. Maybe I should just try playing with reckless abandon, bring my queen out early, throw in a bishop and knight and aim for the weak f7 square?

I follow basic opening principles: 1. rapid development 2. center control 3. castle early. Stock stuff. Nothing unorthodox or closed yet, like 1. Nf3. I'm sticking with open games, like 1. e4 2. Nf3 for right now, which works for most openings except the center counter (scandinavian) 1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 3. Nc3, or the Sicilian Defense-Grand Prix 1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. f4.

If I'm Black and White plays 1. d4, then I'll go for the symetrical 1. ...d5. Again, simple stuff. If White plays 1. e4. then I'll play either 1. ...e5 or 1. ...d5. I know the center-counter, but not the Sicilian yet as Black. Should I?

Now, I'm also seeing another disturbing tactic in blitz games which goes counter to opening theory: early queen escapades by Black. I find this frustrating and throws me off balance.

Finally, does blitz chess follow a different rubric than long chess, or is blitz chess simply this: quality chess played much faster?

The great woman chess champion Susan Polgar said it simply: tactics, tactics and tactics!

I heartily agree again, once said

Definitely tactics.