ChessBase 26 introduced medals, a tagging system that lets you mark your best (and worst) games without digging through your entire database later. Flag a tactical win, a strategic grind, a defensive hold, or a blunder. The point is organization.
Here's what makes it useful. You play hundreds of games. Most blur together. Medals let you instantly pull up your sharpest tactical performances or your toughest defensive battles. You're building a searchable library of your own chess moments, organized by type.
The practical workflow: After analyzing a game, assign a medal based on what stands out. A brilliant combination? Medal it. A positional squeeze where you slowly converted an advantage? Medal it. A position where you held a worse endgame through precise defense? Medal it. Even your worst blunders deserve marking so you can study what went wrong.
This matters for training. Most players study master games endlessly but ignore their own losses. Your medal system reverses that. You're creating personalized training material. Want to review your tactical patterns before a tournament? Pull up all your tactical medals. Need to work on endgame technique? There's your custom collection.
The database becomes something more than a record. It becomes a coach that remembers your best work and worst mistakes, organized exactly how you need it. That's how you build on past games instead of repeating the same errors.