
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
Chubby decides to create a smaller, nonstandard checkerboard that is $29$ squares on each side. Every corner of the checkerboard is black, and the squares alternate between red and black along both rows and columns. Determine how many black squares are on this checkerboard.
A) 420
B) 421
C) 422
D) 423
E) 424

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