Who stands better, why, where is my play coming from, where is his play coming from. If the move is somewhat forced then can it do 2 things for me? If yes can a slightly different square do 3? etc.
Where does _____ piece belong. Who's more prepared for when lines open.
A lot of what players do though is based on non-verbal pattern recognition. So the exact mental operations I do when I'm looking for where a piece belong will be different when an IM does the same.
I recall reading something about how many times experts consider the same candidate moves GMs do, but GMs calculation and evaluation of them are much better. Also maybe 2-3 times a game the GM will consider a candidate move unique to that level of play, which can make a big difference in practical results.
Just wondering if people wanted to share their inner monologue that guides them during their games. Like, once I started thinking "Patzer sees check, patzer gives check" I stopped giving pointless checks. I'm generally thinking things like, "improve your pieces" if there are no threats, "what's my worst piece and how can I improve it?" and when my opponent moves it's "why would he do that? is that a mistake by him? was that defending anything?" I try to solve the question of whether the opponent has threats I need to deal with first before I tackle my own agenda with simple plans to either solidify my position or to attack weaknesses. When calculating, I refer to Charles Galofre's question about tough choices between move A or move B by picturing the board after the forced moves and ask: would that be better for white or for black?