  We review recent progress in checking AdS/CFT duality in the sector of
''semiclassical'' string states dual to ''long'' scalar operators of N=4 super
Yang-Mills theory. In particular, we discuss the effective action approach, in
which the same sigma model type action describing coherent states is shown to
emerge from the AdS_5 x S^5 string action and from the spin chain Hamiltonian
representing the SYM dilatation operator.
