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 "Unknown138"]
[Result "0-1"]
[Annotator "David Hayes"]
[BlackElo "0"]
[FEN "6k1/pb4pp/1p2p3/4Nrq1/3P4/2P4P/PP4P1/5RQK b - - 0 1"]
[SetUp "1"]
[TimeControl "0"]
[WhiteElo "0"]
1... Qxg2+ ( { Black can try: } 1... Bxg2+ 2. Qxg2 Rxf1+ 3. Qxf1 { White wins
with a large material advantage. } ) 2. Qxg2 Rxf1+ 3. Kh2 Bxg2 4. Kxg2 Rb1 { Black wins with a large material advantage. } 0-1