I recently started playing the Scotch game as White and I was wondering about your impression as to which line after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Bc5 offers most practical chances for White in tournament play.

I mean, people seem to have become well prepared for the complications after 5.Be3 Qf6 6.c3, as I've even seen one game today in a database (played last year) where a player rated app. 1800 played first 16 book moves of the Qg6 line, outbooked the higher rated White player (2100) and eventually won.

I've also seen a lot of recent GM games featuring both 5.Nxc6 Qf6 6.Qf3 bxc6 (which seems to be more populat atm than 6...dxc6) and 5.Nb3 Bb6, etc. with good result for White. Of course, in the former, one has to be prepared to play the following transition to the endgame well, but if one :is: good in endgames, this does make sense... The other line seems to be quiet and also more oriented towards positional play, right?

So, in your experience, what is the most flexible way of handling the White side of the Scotch, in practice, without memorizing many tactical lines to great depth and constantly following novelties? I know it must be also a matter of taste, but that aside, what is your personal experience/advice? Thx.

Nxc6 gives a lasting weakness for Black in his pawn structure, which presents targets later that Black has to be wary of.

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Yes, so one line which I was considering is:

As for the Bb4+, I've faced it a couple of times in blitz games here and was totally surprised, as I am not familiar with it, so yes, I've realized it's become fashionable. I've found these reasonable opening lines in some GM games:

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 exd4 4. Nxd4 Bc5 5. Nxc6 Qf6 6. Qf3 bxc6 7. Nd2 d6

is a bit passive; more popular is 7. . . d5; making White decide between 8. exd5, allowing Black to undouble his pawns or 8. e5 leading to tactical games that can go in several differing directions.

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Regarding the 5.Nb3 lines, they sure do look interesting... As for the early 6.Qe2 sortie, I've just read that the recommended answer is precisely 6...a5 to force 7.a4 and render 0-0-0 less attractive for White, so the 'critical line' is then something like:

And, of course, if Black doesn't go for a5 (as some strong players also don't), White gets a really nice position, as Carlsen demonstrated here (and he played this more than on one occasion, though he lost the latter game to Karjakin):

As for 5...Bb4+, Rybka also likes it :) .. though the positions reached there also seem quite nice as in this example:

Ok, so - I've tried the Nb3 approach OTB today.

The game was quite interesting:

http://blog.chess.com/the_cheradenine/sharp-battle-in-the-scotch

even though the opening play wasn't really the most accurate, but the position was very live and rich with tactical opportunities.