New to chess. Stuck in my middle game

I have been playing chess for about 5 days now and learned the basics of openings etc; I read on another part of the forum to look at your opponents 5th and 6th ranks to look for weak pawns and squares etc; to get involved in the middle game after opening. Unfortunately this is where I tend to get stuck. This is a game I'm playing against level 3 on the computer. There have been 14 moves so far and I feel like I always hit a brick wall at this point in my game. 

I look in the 5th and 6th ranks for weak squares but there is none that I can see. The only thing I feel like I can do is move my pieces back and fourth trying to push my way to the centre of the board. 

I feel like I'm always being bullied. Please advise a newbie. 

Wow, I'm actually stuck on this one too.

This may not be much, but try to bring your pieces to the action, like Rd1 or Qb6. Also try not to block your Bishops' paths. You can also do forcing moves.

Wouldn't Qb6 be in vain if opponent moved his Kc7 which would cause me to either take his King or just move my queen back down the board again? Even if I moved my Qc7 to take his king, I'd assume he use Bc7 in return. 

Are u sure? Didn't u oversee something important here?

I can't see it, sorry 

Qb6

Opponent Qc7

Qc7

Opponent Bc7

EDIT: was it because I mentioned King instead of Queen? Sorry about that

Just wonder what about e4 for black to open with some pressure 

Oops first it white to move lollipop 

consider nh4, h3, then move queen and bishop to king side to open opportunities.  this is hard, may be a player with more experience can help.

The main strategic things that stand out are the half open e file, and the pawn breaks for black (b5 and e4).

White's pawn breaks (b4 and f4) will be much harder to support.

So mainly what comes to mind is improving the pieces (in chess pieces mean non-pawns).

Lets pretend black does nothing. White would like to play e.g. Nh4 Bf3 Be4 Nf3 Qc2

And now that the pieces are better, ideally would go for the pawn break
Rb1 a3 b4

Of course in a real game your opponent doesn't shuffle pieces back and forth. This was just to show the idea. It took a lot of moves to organize this position because your opening was not top quality (even though it was very good for such a new player!)

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Some basic observations concerning these suggestions:

The e file stands out because it's half open.
The bishop dislikes e2 because it's blocked by its own pawns
The bishop like f3 because it's on a long diagonal unobstructed by friendly pawns
The rook on e1 dislikes the bishop on e2 because it's blocking the e file.
The queen dislikes b3 because the rook on b8 is indirectly looking at the queen (notice the pawn break black plays pawn to b5).
The b2 pawn dislikes the queen on b3 because the queen blocks its ability to play the pawn break b4.
The only way to defend the en prise pawn on f5 is 15.Nh4.

Diakonia often gives the advice to look for weaknesses on the opponent's side of  the board. It's good advice, but especially in closed positions (in your game characterized by white's c4-d3-e4 interlocked with black's c5-d4-e5) sometimes first comes playing a pawn break. Pawn breaks will (either right away or after additional pressure) allow one of the players to play pawn takes pawn. After pawns are exchanged, lines open up (files, ranks, diagonals) that the pieces can use as inroads to the opponent's position.

With this goal in mind, it makes sense that an ideal pawn break is on the side of the board where you have an advantage in space and or developed pieces.

The main ideas for white in your game after move 6 were to play either b4 or f4 (after completing the opening goals). For example ideally it'd look something like this:

Some people may point out that this isn't a real line because I made black shuffle back and forth. That's not the point. Just showing what development plus pawn break looks like for someone who may never have seen it.

Before I comment on the position you've currently reached, I'll give you a few tips in the opening:

First, playing either of your center pawns one square forward only comes at a cost - it blocks in one of your bishops. I advise you to play 2. Nf3 to attack Black's e-pawn if you come across 1...e5 while playing 1.e4.

Second, you already have a problem by move 5; your pieces have less space to move in and are harder to develop than Black's pieces. If you notice, this is due to the annoying pawns Black has in the center. How could someone deal with this problem? Some might turn their efforts to one  side and give up the center (which isn't a very good idea). However, some might turn their efforts to strike back in the center (which is usually the correct way to play).

Your 6th move, c4, tempted Black to recapture, which would give White a better position if Black did so - his constricting pawns would be gone:

However, Black ignored it, allowing him to keep his space advantage, as the move did not force Black to lose his spatial advantage.

What move would have forced Black to give up his advantage in a similar fashion? Pawn to c3 - it leaves the same consequences for Black, only that it attacks the d-pawn and compels it to capture:

As for your middlegame, you should try opening up some files. An open file is a file which does not block rooks/queens from staring down the file. Opening up files means that the rooks get into the actual "battlefield" instead of being stuck at the back. Refer to Telestu's example.

No. All the highly advanced strategies and imbalances blah blah blah are not suitable for him yet. Just take care, don't hang pieces, notice your opponent's free pieces, gobble up, win.

Once you reached a level aroung 1400 on chess.com, try some Chess Mentor on Strategy. Silman's is recommended.

To be fair, everyone's got to have some sort of plan in the game besides waiting for your opponent to mess up - I would be defeated quickly if I simply moved my pieces to a "good" square then moving them aimlessly until my opponent blunders.

Learning In Progress

Williamn27 is pretty much correct.  With all of 5 days playing chess, the game is about who drops/spots the most free pieces, and learning to checkmate.  You can't read learn a foreign language by starting with sentence structure before you learn what words mean, so most of that stuff you read about squares is just gobbildy gook for now.  You might be a genius, but even geniuses wouldn't benefit from a book on advanced programming 5 days after they started learning to code.  

You are not going to know what to do in a mostly closed position sometimes.  It is frustrating.  It will happen.  It happens to significantly more advanced players sometimes.  

All of that said, you can take some steps that will help.  Don't play 2. d3 because it blocks in your light square bishop.  There is nothing terribly wrong with doing so if you are familiar with the positions that arise, just not a great idea for a beginner.  Make sure you can develop your knights and bishops, do so quickly, castle, don't lock up the pawns unless you have a reason and this type of position won't come up that much.  

If you are not GM after 5 days forget about it

Hi guys. Thanks for the information. Some of the content here is above me quite a bit but I have tried to understand aspects of it, such as figuring out what an open line is etc; I appreciate all your input.

ArtNJ, when you mention about not locking up my pawns, what is the best method for not allowing this to happen? Sometimes I feel like I'm the player who is being pushed around and constantly having to defend, and by this I have no option but to get pawns into the centre. 

Your experience is not unusual.  In the opening phase of the game the opening principles are a considerable help towards finding sensible moves and while you still have pieces to develop it is not to hard to come up with a move by applying those principles.  But as you come out of the opening those principles are no longer a help and you must find moves partly by developing some strategic understanding (pawn structures, what constitutes a weakness, the importance of open files, king safety etc. etc.) but mostly by concrete analysis along the lines you expect the game to follow.  With limited experience to guide you this is difficult.  Knowing how to evaluate a position comes with experience and is difficult to teach and having an idea about what your opponent is likely to do, again, depends on having enough experience.

So the first point to make is that the more you play the sooner the experience will build.

A couple of very general tips.  Firstly try to move your pieces forward not backwards.  Secondly, when moving a pawn spend a moment looking at the two squares the pawn will no longer attack and the square that it vacates.  Thirdly, once you have a candidate move always look at moves your opponent could make which put you in check or which take a piece or a pawn and, if you can manage it, look at any moves your opponent can make which create a threat.  The single biggest reason beginners lose is because they put a piece where it can be taken or leave it on a square where it can be taken.  Getting into the habbit (when time allows) of making those checks helps eliminate that aspect from your game.

Good luck.