Free resource - a puzzle trainer that forces you to verify your calculations

Hi all,
I’ve recently realized that online puzzle trainers has a side effect that reinforce my hope-chess mindset and harm my in-game decision making by allowing me to guess a move and see the engines verdict, rather than truly think the position through.

So I made Counterplay. Unlike other trainers, after finding the right move, you must verify your calculations by playing the opponent’s best move within 5 seconds. This trains the follow-through calculation that other puzzle apps miss.

I’ve found doing puzzles that way to be much more engaging and productive, and was curious to know if others agree.

You can try it for free at counetrplay.app. No registration needed.

There’s also a Beast Mode where every move after the initial one is timed.
Let me know what you think.

Tried it and immediately found a bug, my move was considered wrong although it delivered mate. Retrying I found out that I was supposed to play Qa1# rather than Qb2#.

The idea of Counterplay is interesting, but in my experience the computer choice for the opponent's move is quite often garbage from a human point of view. Which is not all that surprising, since by definition the opponent does not have a good move at all in puzzles where you are winning.

@zwenna said in #2:

Tried it and immediately found a bug, my move was considered wrong although it delivered mate. Retrying I found out that I was supposed to play Qa1# rather than Qb2#.

Thanks a lot for your feedback. You are right, I’ve realized many puzzles do not fit this format and I’m figuering of a way to filter them out. Either that or slightly change the game mechanics to not be affected by it. Will probably make an update today.

Delete all M1 tasks.
Your project forces the player to solve the problem completely. And only then make the first move. Good idea whith 5 sec.

@RemRus said in #4:

Delete all M1 tasks.

I think it’s better that you need to be on the lookout for M1s as well, even though it doesn’t follow the main idea. It still reinforce calculations. I’ve also added a filter for themes so you can only do openings or middle game if you wish. Thanks for the feedback.

I want ask you to add an option that deletes ALL mat tasks.

I can't slide to start button.

@RemRus said in #7:

I can't slide to start button.

Just won’t start? Seems to work fine from few devices I checked. Try refreshing maybe.

A quick update: thanks to feedback I realized I need improve the database for this format to work. In the meanwhile I changed the format a bit, so your own follow-up moves are timed, not the opponents. Let me know if you like it.