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Febrero 23: The Slava Cup in honor of the disappeared Russian bridge player, Slava Grinuk, has become one of the most prestigious events in Russia. Today February 23 finished the Round Robin of the TOP 8 Teams Tournament, with 8 of the best world class teams. The RR was won by Team Real:
Agustin Madala, Alexander Dubinin, Andrey Gromov, Evgueni Gladysh, Mikhail Krasnosselski, Norberto Bocchi
The 4 teams that arrived to the semi-final stage were:
| rk | # | team | IMPs | VPs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | Real
A.Madala, A.Dubinin, A.Gromov, E.Gladysh, M.Krasnosselski, N.Bocchi
|
38 | 117.00 |
| 2 | 5 | Monaco
Franck Multon, Fulvio Fantoni, Geir Helgemo, Henri Fissore, Klaudio Nunes
|
28 | 114.00 |
| 3 | 7 | White Bears
Bas Drijver, Bauke Muller, Dmitrij Serov, Simon de Wijs, Sjoert Brink, V. Gromova
|
18 | 109.00 |
| 4 | 8 | Israel
Alon Birman, Dror Padon, Ilan Herbst, Lotan Fisher, Ophir Herbst, Ron Schwartz
|
12 | 108.00 |
The semifinals were Real vs Israel and Monaco vs White Bears
After the first of the three segments of the Real vs Israel semifinal, Israel was ahead in the semi-final. And here is a nice board played in this semifinal.
Krasnossel playing for Real team opened his hand with a 4
bid…South doubled…final contract.
Padon lead 
A, dummy 4, his partner played the 7 and declarer his K. South switched to the 
A and a little , declarer played the J and North won the trick, returning a diamond to his partner’s 
A followed by a spade ruff. Two down.
“The hills are alive with the sound of music” are the first words of a very well known song, and the bridge table was alive with the sound of bidding when Herbst I. played this board.
In the other room things were very different…When Herbst I. drawing necessary inferences from the bidding took home a nice 3NT game.
Lets see what happened…
After two Pass, Herbst O. opened his hand with a 1bid. Madala doubled and West redoubled.
After his partner’s redoubled East streched his hand and bid 3, and Herbst I. closed the game with a 3NT bid.
Bocchi lead his 6.
Declarer played the 9 from dummy, Madala the 10 and the K won the first trick. Next came a little club to the K and the A. Madala switched to the 7, declarer after Madala’s double played the K, the only card that gave him a possible winning line.
After winning this trick he got the 9 over the table and when Bocchi played a litthe heart, again declarer used the bidding inferences and played the only card to win his contract the 10…when Madala played his 2…declarer claimed…