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 "????.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Unknown"]
[Black "Unknown596"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Annotator "David Hayes"]
[BlackElo "0"]
[FEN "r3k2r/p2n1ppp/2q1Nn2/1p6/1BpP4/6P1/1P2QPbP/R4RK1 w kq - 0 1"]
[SetUp "1"]
[TimeControl "0"]
[WhiteElo "0"]
1. d5 Bxd5 2. Nd4+ Qe6 3. Nxe6 fxe6 { White wins with a large material
advantage. } 1-0