counterplay

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)A game move made as a response.
2. (countable, uncountable)A counterattack in a different part of the board.

   “Milov might have tried 15 ... b4 to give himself some counterplay on the queenside.”

3. (countable, uncountable)A subversive style of gameplay in which a player attempts to overturn the usual rules and conventions of the game.

   “Near-synonym: playing off meta — colloquial”

verb

1. To make a counterplay; to play in response.

   “I knew that, with this arrangement, unless I should counterplay, they would soon fleece me.”

   “In these wars of theirs for the heritage of the whole world, continents will be staked, India, China, South Africa, Russia, Islam called out, new technics and tactics played and counterplayed.”

   “Ironically, therefore, Deng shrewdly counterplayed his “American card” against the Soviet Union in order to forestall Soviet military retaliation against China for the invasion of their Vietnamese ally.”

2. To counter; to contrast or contradict.

   “Yürük weaving generally comprises a rich burnt apricot, particularly in the borders; a mulberry-red filling large areas of the field; lighter reds used to counterplay against a deep, dark crimson […]”

   “Self-reflections on hope are counterplayed by the grim reality in the camp, reminiscent of a lost home, and the agony for the future.”

   “At 3:37, two simultaneous vocal tracks begin to counterplay each other in Bono’s struggle with the range of the pain he is channeling […]”