
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  $7\times 8$  chessboard,  $56$  stones are placed in the squares. Now we have to remove some of the stones such that after the operation, there are no five adjacent stones horizontally, vertically or diagonally. Find the minimal number of stones that have to be removed.

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