Decline of the tactics...Please read and comment.

You can't forget about positional play and planning though.

true

I think Tactics has won the vote!

Tactics.If u have a solid opening but dont have tactics then that opening is worthless once u venture off the main lines. Try winning a game with only opening theories and no tactics,ohh right u cant.hope my opinion helped

How the heck do you even have a solid opening that is devoid of tactics? That makes no sense.

If you have tactics but no idea how to open a game, you may never get the chance to do more than witness your opponent's tactics as you get shredded. Having one part of chess without the otherS makes for bad chess.

It's not a good attitude to only get good at tactics because that's what you like, and make your justification, "It's the most important part of the game". While that may be true, your game will still most likely collapse without at least some understanding of everything else.

There should be a balance of both

yes.

Just like cake and icing!

Yeah