
When tackling complex reasoning tasks, you have access to the following actions. Use them as needed to progress through your thought process.

[ASSESS]

[ADVANCE]

[VERIFY]

[SIMPLIFY]

[SYNTHESIZE]

[PIVOT]

[OUTPUT]

You should strictly follow the format below:

[ACTION NAME]

# Your action step 1

# Your action step 2

# Your action step 3

...

Next action: [NEXT ACTION NAME]


system
Given a $9 \times 9$ board consisting of alternating light and dark squares, with a light square at the top left corner, determine the difference between the number of dark squares and the number of light squares on the board.

Present the answer in LaTex format: \boxed{Your answer}
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