July '00 Update
Mainslav
RS249 In a position where 99% of games lead to the well-developed "piece versus pawns" variation White comes up with an almost unknown and astonishing idea. Instead of playing a piece up he offers a rook sacrifice by playing an absolutely unbelievable move, 10 Ra3!?
            
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Black prefers to win another rook(!) but the result is that all the white pieces come into play while Black's army is still at home. Although the position is very sharp and complicated White was able to outplay his strong opponent...
RS250 The variation 5...Bg4 was introduced in tournament practice by Hungarian player Lajos Steiner and has its followers, although the main continuation 5...Bf5 is much more popular. Here Black tried to revive a continuation which is known to be incorrect with some fairly interesting (and spectacular!) play, but White was no less creative and proved the advantages of his position very convincingly.
QGA
RS253 The ending which arises straight from the opening is known to be in White's favour. But in order to prove it very energetic play from the new Russian Champion Sergey Volkov was required.
RS254 An interesting and more ambitious attempt compared to the game Van Wely - Korchnoi, Wijk aan Zee 2000. Black collapsed quickly having allowed White to show the full strength of his idea, but a more tenacious defence could have been organized without any doubt.
RS255 An important novelty by Pavel Tregubov in a line which had almost disappeared from practice, being considered as harmless for Black. This new idea will force Black to review some variations thoroughly.
RS256 The variation with 7 Bb3 is one of the most dangerous for Black nowadays. Black introduces an interesting but very risky approach which is almost refuted by excellent and creative play. White sacrifices half his army but stumbles just one step from glory.
Meran
RS251 The solid set-up with ...Bd6 then ...Nf8 which was invented by Alexander Filipenko still serves Black very well. Here is Vladimir Akopian's attempt to have a crack at it, and it looks interesting. White sacrifices a pawn and soon an exchange in order to place his Bishop on the long diagonal and seize a strong initiative-- but Black finds a way to slow it down by giving up his queen in return.
RS252 The game Tkachiev - Van der Wiel, Cannes 1999 posed some questions which remained unanswered. In the featured game White decided that a further pawn sacrifice would be too much and preferred not to take the risk. Black's task is maybe slightly easier in this case but the problems still remain and the first thoughtless move here quickly led to disaster.
Anti-Meran
RS247 Recently the strange 7...Bb4!? has become one of the most popular and solid (!) ways to counter the sharp 7 g4!? Mikhail Krasenkov has probably found an improvement in the game Akesson - S.Ivanov, Stockholm 2000 but it was one of the famous Meran experts Robert Kuczynsky who came up with a new and interesting set-up first.
RS248 In a position where Anatoly Karpov removed his Queen from the fire via e4-b1-a1(!) Kiril Georgiev decided not to confuse the public and preferred an active-looking approach which actually only helped Black to maintain the initiative!