White seems better. How could I have capitalized? [FEN ""]
[StartPly "25"]
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 e6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Nxc6 bxc6 7.Be2 d5 8.O-O Qc7 9.f4 Bc5+ 10.Kh1 d4 11.Na4 Ba7 12.b3 Ne7 13.Bd3 O-O 14.Qh5 f5 15.Ba3 Rf6 16.Bxe7 Qxe7 17.Nb2 Rh6 18.Qe2 Bc5 19.Rf3 Bd6 20.Nc4 Bc5 21.Ne5 Qc7 22.Bc4 Kf8 23.exf5 exf5 24.Re1 Bd7
White seems better. How could I have capitalized?


In my opinion, White has a decisive advantage here. He has a better pawn structure and a safer king, and all of his pieces are splendidly centralized.

Black on the other hand has pieces scattered all over the place, his bishops are restricted (but well posted for defense), and his queen is a bit clumsy on c7 but can be repositioned to a better square in a few moves. 

At first, I wanted to play 1. Rh3 to remove the only defender of the kingside Rh6. That turned into an endgame where my minimal advantage fizzled out. 

But then I found a new way to attack by opening the center with 1. c3!. This catches Black unprepared for combat as his Ra8,Qc7 and Bd7 are poorly placed. Since the White pieces are faster, it should not take them too much time to*decisively reposition themselves.

After checking this extensively with the engine, I have confirmed my conclusions.

Since the number of lines is vast, they will not fit here if I try to just copy/paste them. Therefore I will supply illustrative lines from the engine's first analysis.

If you need more efficient demonstrations, I suggest running each line separately through the engine, or posting a new question with the sub-variation you have a problem with.

Without further delay, here are the lines:

[fen "r4k2/2qb2pp/p1p4r/2b1Np2/2Bp1P2/1P3R2/P1P1Q1PP/4R2K w - - 0 1"]

1.c3! dxc3 ( 1...Be8 2.cxd4 $18 ) 2.Rd3 Be8 ( 2... Be6 3.Bxe6 Rxe6 4.Rh3 h6 5.Qc4 Qe7 6.Rxc3 Bb4 7.Ng6+ Rxg6 8.Rxe7 Bxe7 9.h3 a5 10.Re3 Rf6 11.Re6 c5 12.Rxf6+ gxf6 &amp;18 ) 3.Qc2 Ba7 ( 3... Rd8 4.Rxd8 Qxd8 5.Qxf5+ Qf6 6.Ng6+ Rxg6 7.Qxc5+ Qd6 8.Qf5+ Qf6 9.Qc8 Qe7 10.Rxe7 Kxe7 11.Qc7+ Bd7 12.Qe5+ Kd8 $18 ) ( 3... Rh5 4.Rh3 Qc8 5.Rxh5 Bxh5 6.Qxc3 Qd8 7.b4 Bd4 8.Qd3 Bxe5 9.Qxf5+ Qf6 10.Qxh5 g6 11.fxe5 gxh5 12.exf6 Rd8 $18 ) (3... Bb4 4.Rh3 Bg6 5.Rxh6 gxh6 6.a3 a5 7.axb4 axb4 8.Qf2 Qd6 9.Qb6 Re8 10.Qb7 c5 11.Qa7 h5 12.h3 c2 $18 ) (3... Ra7 4.Rh3 g6 5.Rxh6 Bb4 6.Rh3 Ba5 7.Qe2 Qe7 8.Qf2 c5 9.Nxg6+ Bxg6 10.Rxe7 Rxe7 11.Kg1 Rc7 12.Rd3 Re7 $18 ) ( 3... Ba3 4.Rh3 Qe7 5.Rxh6 gxh6 6.Qxc3 Qg7 7.b4 Bc1 8.Qd4 Ra7 9.Qd6+ Re7 10.Rxc1 h5 11.Re1 a5 12.Bf7 Bxf7 $18 ) (3...Rf6 4.Qxc3 a5 5.Qc2 Bb4 6.Red1 Ra7 7.Qf2 h6 8.Qe3 Be7 9.Re1 Qb7 10.Nd7+ Qxd7 11.Rxd7 Rxd7 12.Qe5 Bf7 $18 ) (3... Qc8 4.Nf3 Qb7 5.Ng5 Bd7 6.Rh3 Re8 7.Nxh7+ Rxh7 8.Rxe8+ Kxe8 9.Rxh7 Bd4 10.Rh8+ Ke7 11.Qe2+ Kd6 12.Rd8 c2 $18 ) 4.Rh3 Qd6 5.Rxh6 gxh6 6.h3 Kg7 7.Qxc3 Bd4 8.Qg3+ Bg6 9.Nf3 Bf6 10.a4 c5 11.Re6 Qd1+ 12.Kh2 h5 13.Nh4 Rf8 14.Rxa6 Qc1 $18


Hopefully this helped. If you have any questions or remarks leave a comment.

Best regards.