The Chinese and Japanese word for "fatal" are sadly the same: it means, costing one's life, and as difficult it is to think about, that's what's on the line when one makes a mistake of that magnitude.
This weekend, I had the chance to go down to the IHSA state chess tournament and witness some of the brightest high school minds in the state of Illinois battle it out for the state title, congrats to IMSA (Illinois Math and Science Academy- I was accepted into that school!) for winning the title. Going to the tournament reminded me of the joys of chess, the intense strategizing, the adrenaline rush of playing with one's team, the thrill of victory, but also the devastating feeling of defeat, and how one move in chess (and in life, really) can spell one's doom and be "chimeiteki," or fatal. One competitor from Naperville North was left to tears after making ONE bad move out of 50, and turned a win for her and her team into a loss. In the semifinals of a 130-team tournament. Ouch. Unfortunately, that's one of the defining features of chess: you sit for hours thinking about different scenarios and always trying to make the right move, and you can make the right moves all the time, but if you make one wrong move, that's the end of the match for you, unlike football or basketball where you can always have a chance to come back. In chess, at the higher levels, you make one blunder, and the game is good as over, and many players recognize that by tipping their kings in resignation soon after. In chess, especially at the high-school level (not grandmaster), often it's not who outplays the other with brilliant moves, but who doesn't make the fatal error who wins the match. I understand this now, but unfortunately I made too many fatal errors back in my high school playing days to become a champion. (I wish they would TELL ME or have some sort of flashing lights when I'm about to make a fatal move! Urg!)
As mentioned, life as with dodgeball also involves dodging fatal mistakes. After realizing how many mistakes I make per day, I kind of thank my lucky stars that none of them are fatal ones. I can make a mistake typing, make a bad trade in fantasy baseball, throw inaccurately in dodgeball, say the wrong thing to my parents to make them upset, all of those are not fatal mistakes.
I think it's human nature to avoid fatal mistakes: the higher the cost of the mistake, the more attention is paid to it, the more money is put on stopping those: medical costs for vaccinations and medicine, safety equipment and standards, not going out into wild jungles with deadly creatures, buying a house in a safer neighborhood with less gang violence. I think we can take a lot of lessons from other people's unfortunate ends and take precautions to avoid those fatal mistakes as much as possible: Don't drink and drive (look at how many DUI accidents there are), don't keep a gun in the house (accidental gunshots), get health checkups to get early detection of cancer (don't let it go to the bad stages), etc., etc. I think as a society people might be too desensitized sometimes about some of those bad decisions, we make so many bad ones all the time it's hard to distinguish which ones can be fatal- the phrase "whatever doesn't kill me only makes me stronger" comes to mind, but it's important to evaluate our own behavior in terms of how possible it is that it's fatal- for example, driving a car is already one of the most dangerous activities one can do, why double down on the risk by 1. driving without wearing a seatbelt, 2. driving while impaired, 3. texting while driving, 4. doing anything while driving (I need to work on this!)
Fatal mistakes are the ones Americans all hope President Donald Trump isn't making, as that's the high-stakes games he's playing and which are inherent in the role of President. The more power one has, the more chances of making a fatal mistake (at least for others).
Luckily, in chess, dodgeball, and other sports, you do lose the game if you make a fatal mistake, but you can learn from it and make less fatal mistakes in the future. (Maybe there's another life in the future for all of us where we can learn? Sometimes I honestly think this might be based on how I avoid getting shocked by static like the plague, maybe that was my downfall in a past life). That Naperville North player can learn so much about chess and life like I did from playing the game and developing as a player/person.
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
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