There are two schools of thought:
Classical Theory: Control the center with pawns and pieces
Hypermodern Theory: Control the center with the power of the pieces. In this way you do not create targets for your opponent to attack.
The overall guiding principle:
Winning chess is the strategically and tactically correct advance of the pawn mass
There are many books and chess websites including chess.com under the header Learn that can expand on the two theories abstracted above.
could anyone give me any tips on where i could learn this thing people call theory? cheers :)