(def init-pieces
  [[\u265C \u265E \u265D \u265B \u265A \u265D \u265E \u265C]
   [\u265F \u265F \u265F \u265F \u265F \u265F \u265F \u265F]
   ["" "" "" "" "" "" "" ""]
   ["" "" "" "" "" "" "" ""]
   ["" "" "" "" "" "" "" ""]
   ["" "" "" "" "" "" "" ""]
   [\u2659 \u2659 \u2659 \u2659 \u2659 \u2659 \u2659 \u2659]
   [\u2656 \u2658 \u2657 \u2655 \u2654 \u2657 \u2658 \u2656]])

(def init-colors
  (vec
   (take 8 (cycle [(vec (take 8 (cycle '("#a3854b" "#d3d2cf"))))
                   (vec (take 8 (cycle '("#d3d2cf" "#a3854b"))))]))))

;; the code im trying to replace
(def test-hash
  (mapv
   (fn [row-pieces row-colors]
     (mapv
      (fn [piece color]
        {:piece piece :color color})
      row-pieces row-colors))
   init-pieces init-colors))