Scotch opening

Hello!

What should white play after:

5.Be3 or 5.Nxc6

This is usually a transposition to 4...Bc5.

Usual for black is 4... Bc5. After 4... Qf6, which doesn't make much sense to me, I would go for 5.Nb3, and White is more than ok (note that the 5... Bc5 threat is not possible because of the b3 Knight).

With 4...Qf6 (4...Df6) Black wants to force White into playing c3 taking that square from the knight. I'm not sure how effective that is.

Play out the moves you gave in the Game Explorer (C45: Scotch Game: Schmidt Variation) and start investigating any lines you find interesting or that suit your style. Other players opinions should not influence you too much instead of checking out the "main lines" yourself. 

Don't focus on the winning percentages focus on the moves you'd most likely play anyway and play thru some master games with the lines that look good to you. Next look up articles and blogs on the SO right here under "Learn - Articles" and use a search engine to find more articles at other sites such as www.chesscafe.com 

I think our friend is using French notation, so 4... Df6 refers to "Dame" (queen) and 2 Cf3 refers to "Cavalier" (knight)  I don't know French, but the same notation applies to Catalan, because of similarities among both languages.

@FreeCat  yeah I noticed the Df6 but ASSumed "Nf6" I shoulda looked up French notation in one of my chess books that show notation in various languages. BUT IMHO my suggestions still apply to how our friend here should approach the matter at hand, from glancing at the Game Explorer 4...Qf6 appears to be sound if not exactly popular 

Thanks for your replies!

By "DF6" I meant "QF6". sorry for the misunderstanding. I would be glad to look it up in internet explorer as Nimzoroy suggested it but as it's not a "C45: Scotch Game: Schmidt Variation", how is it called? 

Nb5 seems a bit risky to me, and Nb3 a bit too passive. Be3 seems a good compromise, but after 5... Bc5, 6. c3 is compulsary, which impairs the knight movement. 

I find it odd that the Qf6 variation is not as studied as the other ones...

It doesn't matter what the name is, just make the moves using the Game Explorer here not Internet Explorer and you'll see the name displayed once you get to a named line, which doesn't always happen. 

After that you can use a search engine to look up articles on the opening and you can also just type the moves into a search engine which will often work too

The fact that 4... Qf6 isn't played more must mean there's something better for white than 5. Be3. In the Scotch the thematic soft spot for black is c7, so I think the critical move should be 5. Nb5.

Yes, looking more into it, Nb5 gives a significant advantage after the 15th or 16th move :)

4..Qf6 probably transposes to another line, Black is not really doing himself any favors by 4..Qf6. White can play 5.Nxc6 or 5.Be3 which would just mean Black is likely to play 5..Bc5 in reply. Or White has the additional possibilities of 5.Nb5 , Nb3, Nf3 which in my opinion makes it a worse choice than the traditional 4..Bc5 or 4..Nf6. So I as White would just play my normal replies to 4..Qf6 as I plan to against 4..Bc5.

Hello again! What about this variation:

This time white can't play NB5. What should white play without blocking his knight by playing e3?

Thanks!

c3 is the main move - and there's nothing wrong with that, White gets a very decent position - this move has been the choice of both Carlsen and Kasparov.

You can certainly still play 6.Nb5 though. It leads to very interesting and dynamic positions where White scores well according to my database.

6.Nb5 is trappy, 6..Bxe3 7.fxe3 is the crux of the move. Black has many choices to play, with Qh4+ 8.g3 either 8..Qd8 or Qxe4+, the first Qd8 is probably best as the other Qxe4+ leads to a mutual rook loss but with White still having his Knight trapped on a8 but Black King is a little exposed.