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.
If you are reading this instead of viewing a chess puzzle or game, then you must enable JavaScript on this website.
[Event "rated untimed match"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "1973.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Geller"]
[Black "Ivkov"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Annotator "David Hayes"]
[BlackElo "0"]
[FEN "2r3k1/1p2Qpp1/p2Pq3/P1p5/2P5/4p2P/6P1/4R2K w - - 0 1"]
[SetUp "1"]
[TimeControl "0"]
[WhiteElo "0"]
1. d7 Qxe7 2. dxc8=Q+ { White wins with a large material advantage. } 1-0