Counterattack
An attack launched in response to an opponent's own attack, often turning the tables by creating threats that are more urgent than the original ones.
A well-timed counterattack can force the original attacker to abandon their plan to defend against new threats, shifting the initiative to the counterattacking side.
Etymology
Counterattack is a general military and English-language word carried into chess unchanged. Etymonline defines it as an attack made in response to an enemy's attack and dates the single-word form to about 1850, with the two-word form counter attack recorded from 1817 and the verb from 1867. The prefix counter- derives from Latin contra, against, and the noun attack is dated to the 1660s. Wikipedia's chess glossary gives the chess-specific refinement, defining a counterattack as an attack that responds to an attack by the opponent in a way other than by direct defense, which is the point that distinguishes it from ordinary defence. No source fetched dates the term's first appearance in chess literature specifically.
First documented: n.a. for the chess sense; the general English word is dated to 1850 by Etymonline (1817 as two words) — n.a. for chess
Translations
Translations for this term haven't been added yet.