The case of the I8 2-chain (bottom of Figure ) is again effective at illustrating the bending stabilization mechanism (around atoms 3 and 6) and the limited ability of atoms contributing with electrons of their LEPs to provide bonding electrons for chain stabilization (avoiding a severe violation of the octet rule by neighbour atoms). Again, our simple sketch allows us to forecast and rationalize the existence of this species as a weak [I3•I2•I3] 2-formal complex and to adequately predict experimentally encountered bond alternation (2.8(2), 3.0(1), 3.4(1) Å for formal I2, I3 -and I2 … I3 bonds). Long bonds are, again, those whose shortening will lead to a significant violation of the octet rule.