
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 $7 \times 8$ rectangular chessboard, a piece is placed at the center of each of the small squares. If two pieces are located in small squares that share a side or vertex, then these two pieces are considered connected. From these 56 pieces, some pieces are to be removed such that the remaining pieces do not have five pieces in a straight line (horizontal, vertical, or diagonal). What is the minimum number of pieces that need to be removed to satisfy this condition? Provide an explanation.

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