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 "USSR"]
[Date "1959.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Kensmin"]
[Black "Davidson"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[Annotator "David Hayes"]
[BlackElo "0"]
[FEN "4r1k1/5p2/3p1Pp1/3P2P1/n1nB1N2/1p3K2/7R/8 w - - 0 1"]
[SetUp "1"]
[TimeControl "0"]
[WhiteElo "0"]
1. Nxg6 fxg6 ( { Black can try: } 1... Nd2+ 2. Rxd2 fxg6 3. Rh2 Re1 4. Rh8+ Kf7 5. Rh7+ Ke8 ( 5... Kf8 6. Rb7 b2 7. Bxb2 Nxb2 ( 7... Rb1 8. Rb8+ Kf7 9. Rb7+ Ke8 10. f7+ Kf8 11. Bg7+ Kxg7 12. Rxb1 Kxf7 13. Rb7+ Ke8 14. Rg7 Nb6 15. Ke4 Na4 16. Rxg6 Nc3+ 17. Kd4 Ne2+ 18. Ke3 Ng3 19. Kf3 Nf5 20. Kf4 Nd4 21. Rxd6 { White wins with a large material advantage. } ) 8. Rxb2 Rd1 9. Rb8+ Kf7 10. Rb7+ Ke8 11. Rg7 Rxd5 12. Rxg6 Rf5+ 13. Kg4 Rf1 14. Rg8+ Kd7 15. Kh5 d5 16. Kg6 d4 17. f7 d3 18. f8=Q Rxf8 19. Rxf8 d2 20. Rf1 { White wins with a
large material advantage. } ) 6. f7+ Kf8 7. Bg7+ Kxf7 8. Bc3+ Kg8 9. Rh8+ Kf7 10. Bxe1 { White wins with a large material advantage. } ) 2. Rh8+ Kf7 ( { Black
can try: } 2... Kxh8 3. f7+ Kh7 4. fxe8=Q { White wins with a large material
advantage. } ) 3. Rh7+ Kf8 4. Rh8+ Kf7 5. Rh7+ Kf8 6. Rh8+ Kf7 7. Rh7+ Kf8 8. Rh8+ { Draw by repetition of position. } 1/2-1/2