Which open game?

Hi, I'm a fairly inexperienced beginner player and I'm looking for some advice on openings.

I like to play 1.e4 as white and for the past few months I've been exploring the Ruy Lopez, as it seems pretty popular.  However, I'm coming to the conclusion that it might not be the best opening for me, as it seems rather complex and positional.  Black seems to have a large number of ways in which to respond and it also seems that black can close the game down fairly easily if they want to (i.e. the closed Morphy defense).

So, I'm looking for a new open game to try (assuming my opponent plays 1. ...e5).  I like to play open, tactical positions where there is some cut and thrust fairly early on and it's not too easy for black to close the game.  So, I'm thinking about trying either the King's Gambit, Italian Game or Scotch Game, but I'm not really sure which.  The King's Gambit looks interesting, although it seems to leave white's king exposed, which could be a bit reckless.

I was wondering if anyone could give me some advice on the main differences in character between these 3 openings, as that might help me decide which one to try.  Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

T4T

The Vienna game can be fun, maybe you should consider that too.

1 e4 e5

2 Nc3

There's nothing wrong with the King's gambit either, Scotch is ok, Italian is a little slow, IMO.

But what do I know.

Hi rooperi, thanks for the advice - I'll definitely check out the Vienna game too.

(btw, I'm sure you know more than me :-) )

Both scottish and italian are fine. Both give white a tiny pull if played well. I do not suggest kingsgambit as you have to learn many concrete moves that can make little to no sense. I also do not suggest Vienna because black has very little trouble equalizing without even learning the moves. 

I suggest Italian over scottish though as scottish has some rather long and forced lines that can lead directly into endgames. Also Italian is more an ideas opening. The standard ideas in the Italian can be applied to all italian positions and many more setups.

I like to play the Italian game and against the giuco piano (3. ...bc5) play the Evans gambit. That gets you into some fun attacking lines. The other common moves for black are the two knights defense against which I play the fried liver (although it's theoretically unsound, most beginners don't know how tho play against it) and 3. ... d6 against which you can just play d4 and open the center.

You can only play the fried liver against the unsound Nxd5. Normal black players will play Na5

I would recommend the scotch, heres my reasons compared to the others, excluding ruy.

Italian: A bit too passive (fried live is unsound)
Vienna: Black is equal, and its hard to push for any advantage
Kings Gambit: Gives black too many chances


The scotch however is quite active, can promise you can advantage and is entirely sound, so that you will never have to ditch it for a stronger opening once you reach a higher rating class.

But then again, some people like risky openings like the kings gambit. 

Scotch gambit, Danish gambit.