Tactics is what you do when there's something to do, strategy is what you do when there's nothing to do.
Someone, (Tartakower?) said that.
Strategy is your long term plan, about controlling key squares, changing bad pieces for good, gaining tempi or space, etc.
Tactics are a short-term forced continuation usually leading to gaining material or mate.
http://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/does-chess-strategy-exist
Go read that entire thread then ask yourself do you really care anymore.
Tactics is what you do when there's something to do, strategy is what you do when there's nothing to do.
Someone, (Tartakower?) said that.
Strategy is your long term plan, about controlling key squares, changing bad pieces for good, gaining tempi or space, etc.
Tactics are a short-term forced continuation usually leading to gaining material or mate.
As rooperi put it. I, myself, am a positional player who tries his hardest to make sure there is nothing to do, for either player, at any given time, throughout the game.
You can think of "strategy" as the plan. In a war, the generals plan the battle. They might decide a flank attack on their enemy's position. This is their plan, their strategy. Tactics come into play when the soldiers, who do all the dirty work, have to go onto the battlefield and make it happen. In the simplest of terms, you might have a plan to lock down your opponent's pawns on the d, e and f files while building up an attack on your opponent's King-side position. That is your strategy. When you actually start the attack, you find a fork and discovered check you can employ. Putting the fork and discovered check into play is tactical. Again, this is an extremely simple explanation of two complex topics.
I am an extremely tactical player, I much prefer making things happen then stare at a dull thornless positions where everything is adequetly protected, and where pieces shuffle around until one player makes a mistake and then all of the opponents pieces fly into one persons camp and they resign before the fun can begin. I enjoy watching the games of Tal and Morphy because they werent affraid of giving up material if they knew that thier opponent couldnt find the perfect defence.
jetfighter
thanks jetfighter im bout to go and look at a few of there games. can i find them on here even if im a basic member?
Of course, Tal and Morphy were also masters of strategy... 
You need to balance the two. You cannot attack from an equal position so you need to use strategy to get into a possible attacking position. Then a good player will use tactics to gain material or force a checkmate.
If you look at the games of Morphy you will see how he quickly mobilises his forces and gains a tactical advantage. I'm not suggesting this is easy but he seems to make it look so.
Morphy was also later found crazy in louisiana, and Fischer found Crazy in Iceland, Not sure if that helps, but going crazy may have something to do with greatness
Anybody who thinks positional players lack tactics should check GM Melik's vidoes on Petrosian, awesome stuff....and Tal's often described as making 'intuitive sacrifices'...which i take it means he couldn't possibly calculate everything but it felt right, and that i believe makes him a positional player! HA!
can someone please tell me in chess the difference between strategy and tatics seems to me that they are somewhat the same