Opt Art: Chess Piece Mosaics

This work is a mini research project related to the contents of the OR1 lecture by Prof. Dr. Lübbecke of the Operations Research chair at the RWTH Aachen University and adopts principles presented in the book "Opt Art: From Mathematical Optimization to Visual Design" by Robert Bosch.

Mosaic of current world chess champion Magnus Carlsen with a FIDE classical time rating of 2847 ELO (as of 4th March 2021) using 2847 complete chess piece sets. Half of the total amount of each piece received a light and the other half a dark background shade.

Mosaic of Beth Harmon (played by Anya Taylor-Joy) from the 2020 Netflix series "Queen's Gambit" using 2020 complete chess piece sets. Half of the total amount of each piece received a light and the other half a dark background shade.

Setup & Usage

# the tested python version can be found in .python-version
python3 -m venv venv
. venv/bin/activate
# manually install the correct version of gurobipy before continuing with the other dependencies
pip3 install -r requirements.txt
# adjust the parameters for the mosaic manually in Prototype.py
# - desired target image: target_path
# - desired number of complete chess piece sets: num_sets
# - the default piece set and background combination should work fine in the majority of cases
# --> for customization consult findings in Brightness-Analysis.md
python3 Prototype.py
# - target greyscale image: Target.png
# - output mosaic: Mosaic.png

• Note on limitations: As there is a fixed number of mosaic tiles which has to be used in the final result, it is not possible to model arbitrary aspect ratios for a specific num_sets value. Thus, if the output mosaic looks distorted try your luck again with a different num_sets value.

Extension Ideas

• Enable input parameters via CLI arguments or JSON files
• Automate best num_sets value search for a given predefined set of desirable options
• Consider adding blank board tiles which enables the generation of mosaics from individual board positions or complete games
• Add additional LP constraints to prevent the same piece configuration being placed adjacent to itself
• Add additional LP constraints to construct an actual checkerboard pattern in the background

Attributions

• Thanks to everyone who makes open-source software like the used Python packages or imagemagick possible
• Thanks to Gurobi for their free academic licenses
• Thanks to the multitude of free online chess platforms namely lichess.org, chess.com, and chess24.com among others
• The original image of Magnus Carlsen from his own website
• The original image of Beth Harmon (played by Anya Taylor-Joy) from this news article