8. There are some chess pieces in a box, with the quantity being less than 50. Xiao Ming and Xiao Liang take turns to take chess pieces from the box. If they take the pieces in the pattern of Xiao Ming taking 2, Xiao Liang taking 2, Xiao Ming taking 2, and Xiao Liang taking 2, in the end, Xiao Ming takes 2 more pieces than Xiao Liang; If they take the pieces in the pattern of Xiao Ming taking 3, Xiao Liang taking 3, Xiao Ming taking 3, and Xiao Liang taking 3, in the end, both of them take the same number of pieces. Therefore, the box contains at most $\qquad$ pieces.
【Analysis】The chess piece leaves a remainder of 2 when divided by 4, and can be divided by 6, the answer is 42.  
【First consider the case of taking three pieces, since the two people take the same amount; so the maximum can only be $48, 42, \ldots 0$. But when it is 48, taking two pieces in turn does not meet the condition that Xiaoming has two more pieces than Xiaoliang; checking reveals that 42 can satisfy the condition, so the answer is 42.