If you control and/or occupy the center of a chess board, then you can move to any place of the board faster than your opponent. The board's center is the high ground of a chess battle.
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[Event "rated untimed match"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "????.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Unknown"]
[Black "Unknown507"]
[Result "0-1"]
[Annotator "David Hayes"]
[BlackElo "0"]
[FEN "4k3/R7/1P1n1p2/2pPpP2/2P1P3/4QP2/3KB1q1/4r3 b - - 0 1"]
[SetUp "1"]
[TimeControl "0"]
[WhiteElo "0"]
1... Nxc4+ 2. Kxe1 Qh1+ ( { Black can try: } 2... Nxe3 3. b7 Qg1+ 4. Kd2 Qb1 5. Kxe3 Qb6 6. Ra8+ Kd7 7. b8=Q Qxb8 8. Rxb8 { White wins with a large
material advantage. } ) 3. Kf2 Qh4+ 4. Kg1 Qg3+ 5. Kh1 Nxe3 6. Bf1 Qxf3+ 7. Kh2 Ng4+ 8. Kg1 Qf2+ 9. Kh1 Qxf1# 0-1