
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

The cells of a $5 \times 5$ board are painted in a checkerboard pattern (the corner cells are black). A piece, called a mini-elephant, moves over the black cells of this board, leaving a trail on each cell it visits and not returning to that cell again. The mini-elephant can either move to adjacent (diagonally) cells that are free of trails or jump (also diagonally) over one cell that has a trail to a free cell beyond it. What is the maximum number of cells the mini-elephant can visit?

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