Ruy lopez or Italian game??

Which one is better?

They still don't know it at top level so...

If U wanna sleep, play Giuoco Pianissimo.

Contrary to Amateurs' belief because they think total statistics are the end all, be all, and that 1...c5 scores roughly 47 1/2 percent to 1...e5's 46 percent, the fact of the matter is that 1...e5 is Black's soundest response to 1.e4.  Yes, you will win fewer games, but for Black, it is not about wins.  It is about survival.  1...e5 is the equalizer.

These numbers are not exact by any means and are merely hypothetical as I am not going digging for actual numbers right now - that would entail pulling up megabase 2021 - the database here is weak to use for statistics.  They are simply there to make a point.

Najdorf - Let's say, to make the math easy, that there were 1000 games in the database, White won 350 of them, Black won 300, and 350 were drawn.  That would be a 47.5% score for Black (475 points scored out of a possible 1000)

Now let's say there are 1000 Berlin games.  White wins 240 of them.  Black wins 160 of them.  There were 600 draws.  Yes, that is only 46% for Black.

But at the top level, Black is not about winning.  At their level, they simply want to survive with Black and go for their wins when they have White.

The Najdorf example above had a 65% survival rate to the Berlin's 76%.

The Ruy Lopez has a low win ratio due to the Berlin

The Italian with c3 and d4 is dead equal.

The Italian with d3 is where many are going now, but finding an advantage for White is still very tough.

The Scotch is another where White is struggling to find an advantage.

The Vienna same deal.

The Kings Gambit is struggling to equalize - Black is actually slightly better, but it is tough as all get out to know all the lines.  Kings Gambit is total garbage in Correspondence, but over the board and blitz, it can be tricky.

Long story short, 1...e5 leads to the greatest struggle to find an advantage for White, and is the defense that could make 1.e4 not best in a "Must Win" situation.

Ahaha

I would chose italian

Both are rich openings that offer winning chances for both sides all the way up to 2800+ levels.  And there are elite players who use E5 to win with black.

If you're planning on playing one of these, one of the big decisions you need to make is how much work you intend to put in as white.  The Ruy Lopez will take more work since there are so many sound and ambitious ways to meet it.  At the top level, it isn't uncommon to see the open, zaitsev, marshall, berlin, archangel, breyer, etc. 

Subjectively I'd say  RL > Scotch > Italian

Which one do you prefer?

Yeah I agree, the Italian has a lot less theory compared to the ruy !

Fair enough it's a great opening!

That's kind of the wrong question. That would be like asking which (American) Football formation is the best between shotgun or I-formation. It really depends on what your strengths are and what you want to do. I feel like, especially at lower levels, the Italian is played more to avoid theory and to employ traps. That's not to say that it isn't sound, it is, but I think that advantages gained in the Italian can be brief and need to be acted on quickly before its gone. The Ruy Lopez I think is more for the thinker, patient, and less impulsive players. I think the amount of theory tends to scare people away, but as long as you are playing someone around the same rating, they will probably be as familiar with theory as you. There are so many variations of the Italian and the Ruy Lopez that it's hard to describe them in broad terms, but I will say that even though I would much rather face the Ruy Lopez as black, I would still probably choose it over the Italian when I am white too.

I'm just asking which one they prefer

Being Honest Italian game is way more popular and puts you at a advatage

Introduction to The Italian Game & Evans Gambit...

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/introduction-to-the-italian-game

if you mean an advantage, both the Ruy Lopez and the Italian have a slight advantage for white. The engine thinks the Ruy Lopez is slightly better however

If anyone is interested in Spassky's opinion:

"Spassky told me himself the gambit doesn't give White much, but he plays it because neither does the Ruy Lopez nor the Giuocco Piano."

From 'A Bust to the King's Gambit' 

if you're going to play the Kings gambit you really have to spot any slight inaccuracy the other player makes and know how to take advantage of it. I've spent so much time learning the lines and I still can't see them sometimes 

For sure. My intent was to say that although most top GMs prefer the Ruy, you could reasonably play the scotch, italian, vienna, etc and just outplay black. Still plenty of pieces on the board and plenty of mistakes to be made.

The Giuoco Piano is kind of boring

I prefer Scotch over Italian, and Ruy Lopez over Scotch