user12094: I was trying to find a kid's app for chess that has some incredibly simple problems. However, all the apps I found had rather tricky problems. So I thought I would download 3 piece table bases and use SCID (or grep, if necessary) to create a 3-piece Mate-In-One tablebase PGN. Then just use that in iChess or any other problem app that allows PGN imports.
Much to my chagrin, the tablebases aren't in PGN format as I expected (and I cant even read them in a text editor. Guess I really misunderstand how these tablebases work).
Any solutions out there?

user825: It's possible to generate mates in 1,2,3 etc with tablebase, but that's probably not what you want. You should understand:

You will need good programming knowledge
You will need a week generating 6-men tablebase mates
You will generate too many mates than you can possibly study

If you are confident in programming, you can do this:

Modify the Gaviota tablebase generator (ask the author for source code). Find where it calculates distance-to-mate, if it's one (or two or three), print the position out.
Modify the Syzygy tablebase generator. Syzygy reports distance-to-zero, so you may need to use online probing (e.g. Nalimov) or an engine.
Use the public API in https://syzygy-tables.info. Start from a randomised position. Use the API result to move your position to mate-in-one.

If you don't have any idea what I'm talking about, generating mate positions with tableabse is not for you. You should:

Buy a book with mate-in-one positions. There is an Android app that can read a chess diagram and convert it to PGN.

EDIT: You shouldn't generate total random FENs. You should try to generate FENs that either side has an extra rook, queen etc.

12094: <p>I was trying to find a kid's app for chess that has some incredibly simple problems. However, all the apps I found had rather tricky problems. So I thought I would download 3 piece table bases and use SCID (or grep, if necessary) to create a 3-piece Mate-In-One tablebase PGN. Then just use that in iChess or any other problem app that allows PGN imports.</p>
<p>Much to my chagrin, the tablebases aren't in PGN format as I expected (and I cant even read them in a text editor. Guess I really misunderstand how these tablebases work).</p>
<p>Any solutions out there?</p>
 825: <p>It's possible to generate mates in 1,2,3 etc with tablebase, but that's probably not what you want. You should understand:</p>

<ul>
<li>You will need good programming knowledge</li>
<li>You will need a week generating 6-men tablebase mates</li>
<li>You will generate too many mates than you can possibly study</li>
</ul>

<p>If you are confident in programming, you can do this:</p>

<ul>
<li>Modify the Gaviota tablebase generator (ask the author for source code). Find where it calculates distance-to-mate, if it's one (or two or three), print the position out.</li>
<li>Modify the Syzygy tablebase generator. Syzygy reports distance-to-zero, so you may need to use online probing (e.g. Nalimov) or an engine.</li>
<li>Use the public API in <a href="https://syzygy-tables.info" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://syzygy-tables.info</a>. Start from a randomised position. Use the API result to move your position to mate-in-one.</li>
</ul>

<p>If you don't have any idea what I'm talking about, generating mate positions with tableabse is not for you. You should:</p>

<ul>
<li>Buy a book with mate-in-one positions. There is an Android app that can read a chess diagram and convert it to PGN.</li>
</ul>

<p><strong>EDIT</strong>: You shouldn't generate total random FENs. You should try to generate FENs that either side has an extra rook, queen etc.</p>
