Basically the questions in the title but here's more detail.

I noticed that I could inspect a chest with my sorcerer (costs 1 spell point) and it says Magic[Y or N] Trap[Y or N]. So I figured the second piece of info is obvious but then after I choose 2) disarm trap with my thief my whole party gets blown up. The first question is should I simply leave chests? Just now I got blown up on a tremendous run where I only wanted to get back home and save. Now all that progress and items is lost.

The second question is what does Magic[Y] mean? I don't remember reading anything about it in the manual but I'll look into it tomorrow.

On a side note I'm 9 hours in and when the game clicks, it actually is pretty amazing for a 38-year-old game. It's actually pretty solid so far. I've never played a Might and Magic cRPG (but have spent countless hours in HoMM3 :) back in the days) and I'm currently committed to playing through the series but these mechanics are quite hardcore for me. Anyways.

i believe that the magic (y/n) shows if the chest has magical items in it
at least that is how it seemed to work in M&M 2

and from what i have seen so far myself it seems to be the case for M&M 1



as for getting blown up it can happen
though your robbers will get better at picklock and trap disarming as they level

only real tip i can offer is to try disarming traps after making sure everyone has decent HP
unconscious characters will most likely die

Buy a "Robber's Tools" as soon as you can. It helps tremendously.

Magic means if there is a magical object inside, partly to tell you if it is worth the risk of defusing the trap.
The Robber's chance of success is based only on his thief skills, in MM1 I seem to remember that this is only modified with certain objects and not with the level.

I also started MM for the first time this summer with the first and now I'm on the fourth. Once you understand certain mechanics it becomes more manageable, the sore points are always saving and grinding. Leveling heavily is the only thing to do, with certain spells everything becomes more manageable.