The 2013 Vilnius Cup Festival is taking place in Lithuania and on Thursday August 29th, were played two pairs events the: Commercial Pairs and Mixed Pairs. Every year many of the best european players participate in the Open Teams event.
August 30th: VILNIUS CUP – Open Teams
[ results ] [ crosstable ] [ butler ] [ VP table ]
In the 6th round of the RR, the Real Team faced the Herman team. Four of the best players from Russia play in the Real team: Alexander Dubinin & Andrey Gromov, Eugeniy Gladish & Mikhail Krasnoselskiy.
In the Herman team plays one of the Poland partnerships who was part of the Bridge 24 team, winners of the 2013 Spingold Cup in the Atlanta NABC this month : Jacek Kalita & Mikhail Nowosadzki this time playing with David Herman from (USA) & Artur Malinowski from England, this last player with Janet de Botton, David Burn, Thor Erik Hoftaniska, Thomas Charlsen and Nick Sandqvist won the 2013 Schapiro Spring Foursomes.
The very first board produced the first two double digit difference: After his partner Gladish, opened the bidding with a 1
bid, Krasnoselskiy closed the heart game showing support with a limited hand. The hand is safe with all leads, in the table Herman chose to lead his J, and declarer won the trick in his hand with the A, to continue with his 
A and ruffing a diamond in dummy (watching North play the J). Declarer continued with 
A, K, ruffed a club in his hand and ruffed another diamond in dummy watching now North’s Q.
Gladish continued playing the 6, North played his 8 and declarer his 10, allowing Herman to win the trick with his Q…something that was planned when he lead J: make declarer see a doubleton as a singleton.
Finally Gladish had to lose: 1 trump, 2 spades and a diamond for one down. At the other table, was played the same contract, but this time South chose the 3 lead.
Kalita, the declarer, played dummy’s A and played diamond to the A, to continue playing a spade to the 
K, North won with his A and played a heart. East won with his A watching the honor played by South. He lost the 10 to South’s J, who played his Q to the K. 
Kalita continued ruffing a spade with his 10…covered with South’s Q, more club, ruffed in declarers hand and the K to take the last opps trump. Now diamond ruffed, spade ruffed, diamond ruffed, and the last spade was good for 10 tricks. 
Board 20 produced another8 IMPs swing. Kalita after his partner 1 opening bid and the vulnerable 4 from Gromov, decided to play 5, but Dubinin sure of East spade void risk a 5 bid…nobody doubled. As the A is fine for declarer, the contract was cold, after losing a club and a diamond.
At the other table, the bidding begun in the same way, but didnt have a happy end for E/W: 
Gladish in Kalita’s seat chose to double, showing values and the other suits, West passed. Bad luck, declarer made an overtrick to write +990 and 8 IMPs for his team. The match vs Herman 18 – Real 2.
Next board was a swing for the till the moment the weakest team. Malinowski in North opened his hand with a 1 bid and South ended playing 4.
Herman covered with his A East’s K after a little spade lead from West, to continue with Q, ruffed with the de 9, next came K y Q learning about West four original trumps.
Declarer continued with A, K and ruffed a with his 8 covered with Krasnoselskiy 10 who returned a heart. Herman after winning the trick, had these 4 cards in his hands A y K 7 3 and played the 3…West played a little one and South a little club from dummy…the 10 won the trick, and a club return defeated the contract.
In the other table North opened 1NT, to end as a 4 declarer, the club lead showed immediately the club suit position and declarer ended with 10 easy tricks to add 12 IMPs to his pockets.
Board 23 produced the next important swing: after South 1 opening bid, North showed his hearts suit and passed his partner’s minimum support. Gladish in East reopened with double, Herman redoubled and West showed a weak hand with spades at the 2nd level. Malinowski doubled and his partner passed.
Only a club or diamond lead defeats the contract, but North chose a trump lead: 3, this gave time to declarer to play clubs, and to make his contract scoring 670. At the other table South opened a weak 1NT and ended playing 3 after a stayman response.
The only lead that give some hope to declarer is a trump lead, but West with Q J 9 2 chose a diamond lead. Declarer didnt guess the heart position and lose Q, J with two spades and two clubs.
In the last board the Herman team added another 5 IMPs, to end the match in almost a tie: Real 25-Herman 23.