> where does the pattern matching stop and strategy starts or it's one and the same?
It's not one and the same, but strategy patterns are definitely a thing too.
There are:
- tactical patterns (e.g. "back rank checkmate", or "pair of pieces that can be forked by a pawn");
- strategy patterns (e.g. "knights are good in closed positions", or "in a same-colour bishop endgame, put your pawns on the colour opposite to the bishops").
There's also calculation ability which also partly relies on patterns one has seen before.