Conceptual Metaphor: Life Is Like a Game of Chess

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Discussion
Discourse
Conclusion
Works Cited

Introduction

Our thoughts are not only governed by matters of intellect but also by concepts. These concepts structure and govern our functioning everyday, especially in relation to what we perceive. Our everyday realities are defined by our conceptual system which is largely metaphorical; it informs our thinking, experience and what we do each and every day ((Lakoff &Johnson 103).

Discussion

I view life as a concept and the game of chess as a metaphor. A game of chess can be comparable to life in many ways. In a game of chess, first of all, the hierarchy that exists on a chess board reflects the social classes of people that the world has. Also, a chess player has to think for a long time and that’s one major survival tactic in that game. Similarly, in life you have to think ahead, meaning you have to think carefully before acting in anyway and ask yourself what would be the outcome of a certain action ,do you have a backup plan in case the plan that you have set backfires ?how will you get out of a bad situation ?

In a game of chess the player has to be careful in moving his pieces, you should try and think of the implications of your moves, your opponents’ strategies and how to counter them. You should also learn to anticipate his moves and in the instances that he beats you with a move you have to find a way to get out of that situation. That’s why it’s not uncommon to hear people say such words like, “Make your moves carefully if you want to win that court case” or “That boy likes you, you just have to make the right move”. The foundation of financial planning of any life situation is based on the above metaphorical analogy.

In life one has to learn to adapt to changing situations which requires an open mind and willingness to shift your position. If I may compare it to a game of chess, an opponent in a game of chess doesn’t always follow a given sequence; in each game he plays he uses a different plan and sequence in the moves that he makes. To counter his moves therefore you should be ready once in a while to discard your moves and plans and rearrange your moves according to his.

Also in life, once in a while you have to discard your plans to counter the problems that life throws at you. Life requires that you have an open mind that adapts to change; life isn’t smooth with its many ups and down, some that you can never anticipate whatsoever. Hence, you should position yourself where you can navigate through it easily when confronted by such situations.

While playing a game of chess you sometimes sacrifice your smaller pieces for a more rewarding piece, say the mighty queen. Brilliant sacrifices especially at the right moment have won a lot of games. A good chess player gives up his pawns so that he can have a greater milestone later in the game; however this requires a lot of forethought and calculations.

Life requires a lot of sacrifices; without making sacrifices you may end up losing on the more important parts of life and finally you might end up a loser. For example, many successful artists of the past and those of our times have made mistakes in their lives by choosing the less important thing and hence failing miserably. Fame has made them lose their direction and they have taken the wrong path. Music artists, movie directors and actors have many times chosen to indulge in alcohol and use of drugs.

Amy Winehouse, a five time Grammy award winner was recently found dead in her apartment from drug overdose, Michael Jackson the King of pop as he was popularly known, died in a controversial situation that has puzzled the police up to date but rumor had it that he died of a drug overdose as well. Those are just to mention but a few cases of our lifetime, Elvis Presley the King of rock and roll was also in a similar situation. Had these famous people taken the right path and sacrificed the temptation of drugs and alcohol they would have had better lives.

Discourse

Looking at the field of politics, many politicians have gained a lot of mileage due to their sacrifices. In equal measures, some of the more promising politicians have lost for not making the right sacrifices. Nelson Mandela probably the most distinguished icon of this century sacrificed twenty seven years of his life for the people of South Africa by serving in jail, on his release from prison he took a great bargain in his political career and was ready to sacrifice the support of the majority South Africans in exchange for an end to racism. With his gesture of embracing the white minority, fortunately his bargain paid off and he remains one of the most respected leaders in the world.

On the chess board you might be occasionally tempted by trivial positions and small pawns. If you succumb to these small offers, your vulnerability and weakness will be exposed. In order not to ruin the game and lose in the long run, you should not fall for these temptations but remain focused on your eventual objective and your targets. You should be able to identify and resist the temptations that come momentarily. Life exposes us to too many temptations for example, you might be tempted to eat food with high cholesterol clearly aware of the fact that you might develop a heart disease in the long run but non-the-less eat the food and thus expose ourselves to those diseases. Or we might be tempted to smoke cigarettes and we well know that the cigarettes will cause cancer eventually.

I had a friend in high school, Yu, he was a pretty good chess player and he loved the game so much that whenever we were in class between lessons, he would narrate his triumphs on the board. He had won so many tournaments within our district and beyond. However, due to him spending so much time either on the chess board or narrating his triumphs, he had begun to loose his concentration in class. Most of the teachers started to complain about his dwindling performance. Some of them called him and tried to advise him, some even threatened to call his parents and tell them about their son.

One afternoon our math teacher called me to his office and told me, “Alex! Talk to your friend, if he doesn’t change his strategies he might be beaten at his own game. He needs to be serious with his academics. You know, he might be so good at chess but life goes beyond that. I know you are his good friend so tell him to put his house in order, make him understand the importance of education especially in this final year.”

After listening to our teachers concerns and being my brother keeper, I had to talk to Yu, I asked him to sacrifice his love for chess especially at this eleventh hour (we were about to do our final exams).

Being a reasonable person who listened to advise, Yu changed. He reorganized himself by planning his time well and completely gave up playing chess at least until we were done with our final examinations; he wrote a time table and set up study goals.

Fortunately, he passed his exams and he is back at playing his favorite game. In fact he recently represented our county at the regional games and emerged second overall. This experience taught me a very important move in chess and also in life; sometimes you have to sacrifice some pieces for the more valuable one, especially at the right moment.

A game of chess is played passively or actively. A passive player only plays to survive in the game and avoid a checkmate. He bases his actions on those of the opponent and he doesn’t question anything; he depends on the opponents’ habits and uncertainties but he doesn’t attack. His main aim is just to be in the game. On the other hand, an active player attacks his opponent. He plays to win the game and the pace of the game depends on his moves.

A life approach to this analogy is that in life some people prefer to wait and see how life takes them so they don’t act or take any action. Their moves depend on the particular situation that they are in. The active life players prefer to attack life; they take the risks and thrive to succeed by all means. The direction that life takes them is set by them and they are ready for any situation and eventualities that may arise due to their actions (Feldman 82).

Conclusion

Finally, the game of chess to some extent depends on your luck and similarly some people in life have become successful only by luck. Life most often doesn’t give you an opportunity twice, that’s why the saying goes ‘opportunity doesn’t knock twice’.If we may borrow an example from the recent Libyan situation. The former leader, refused to step down from power after serving for so many years. Finally, he was forced to step down by a popular uprising in his country and later killed.

His death did not only bring an end to the uprising but also and end to a forty two year dictatorship which had seen the death of so many people. Had he sacrificed and stepped aside, he would probably have been respected and seen as a hero, not only in his country but also in the whole world, especially for his development record. We can conclude that, his luck ran out.

It often doesn’t happen in life that you have the opportunity to analyze your opponent’s position; life doesn’t give you that pleasure. It’s a closed game where you play blindly. Except in situations where you get information on someone e.g. when parents receiving information and Intel about their kid, in many cases of life you are not normally informed about your opponents

Works Cited

Feldman, Narayanan S. Embodied Meaning in a Neural Theory of Language. Brain and Language.New York:Columbia UP, 2004.

Lakoff,Johnson M.Metaphors We Live By.O’brien.New York. 1980.

Language and Culture. 2005. Web.

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