
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
In a chess tournament, two 7th-grade students and some number of 8th-grade students participated. Each participant played against every other participant exactly once. The two 7th-grade students together scored 8 points, and all the 8th-grade students scored the same number of points (in the tournament, each participant receives 1 point for a win, and $1/2$ point for a draw). How many 8th-grade students participated in the tournament?

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