What are your 3 favorite chess ideas?

I like zugzwang, distant opposition and removal of the defender...

Suffocating your opponent through lack of space(my chess teacher once showed me an exaggerated example of a crushing space advantage-even though black has all his pieces on the board, he has only one king move available, alternating between Kh8 and Kg8!), Knight Forks with Check(basically forces a win of material) and forcing an exchange between a good piece and a bad one.

"Suffocating your opponent through lack of space" basically results in zugzwang, btw

When a player is "in zugzwang" he/she can not make any constructive move to help themselves.  (Opposition being the simplest form of zugzwang)

My favorite is checkmate in 1, checkmate in 2 and checkmate in 3

zwischenzug, zugzwang, and zeitnot!

Well they're all Zs anyway.

Gambit play

Initiative

Tempo

triangulation,in-between move and x-rays!