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 "Unknown482"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Annotator "David Hayes"]
[BlackElo "0"]
[FEN "2k4r/p4ppp/2pr4/4p2q/2P5/2nQ1P2/P4P1P/R1B2RK1 w - - 0 1"]
[SetUp "1"]
[TimeControl "0"]
[WhiteElo "0"]
1. Qxd6 ( { White can try: } 1. Qxc3 Qh3 2. Bg5 Rg6 3. Kh1 Rxg5 4. Rg1 Rh5 5. Rg2 e4 6. Qxg7 exf3 7. Qxh8+ Kc7 8. Rag1 fxg2+ 9. Rxg2 { With a likely draw. } ) 1... Qxf3 2. h3 Rd8 3. Qxe5 Qxh3 4. Bf4 { White wins with a large material
advantage. } 1-0