Disturbed by my inconcistency

This is very normal. And the stronger you get the worse the difference will be because your opponents become more and more able to exploit smaller mistakes on your part. See: Aronian, who was the number 2 player in the world at one time, going 4.5/14 in the candidates tournament.

I agree with the advice 'don't play too many in a row, you'll exhaust yourself'. As usual, I got up to about 1500 and then slid down into the upper 1300s. I took a break and just played two games, which I won. Then took a break and won another two games. The common factor: I stopped playing all the time and concentrated a bit harder on those games I did play.

Thanks very much for all your replies.

Reading them has made me aware that we chess players are probably crazy or immensely motivated to want to improve our games, no matter what.

The remark made by @coledavis seems accurate as this used to be me every weekend when I played way too much chess in my desire to become better at this game.

I should know better because I would win back my losses when I limited the number of games I played and took my time with moves.

It is so easy to be swept into defeat after defeat after defeat, believing that the next one will be better, even though in boxing terms, the ref should have stopped the fight because you are out on your feet.

Worse is winning one and then believing you have stopped the rot and will get back on top. Not on, especially when you are exhausted, but you still want to throw punches.

Something on this topic I wonder about though is how then to build endurance? Obviously being in good physical shape is important, but I wonder if practice playing extended sessions is also a means of, over time, helping to raise one's endurance.

You don't start out running marathons, but you also will never run a marathon if you keep your runs to just a few miles.

@OhNoMyPants

Good point! I watch masters play game after game, win after win. For hours at a time, to boot.

But to expand your marathon running analogy a little. If Mo
Farah ran at my pace, he would probably run three marathons before starting to sweat.

I think endurance in chess has little do with playing blitz for hours on end. It is about keeping a high level of concentration for hours on end.

A marathon is not a series of sprints. It's one long race at a uncomfortable but manageable pace.

I think as well good players have played so much long chess and understand so much about the game that their intuition is so much more finely tuned and they don't work as hard as novices like myself to maintain a good level over a long period of time.

I'm only writing on the forum so I can do the captcha tactic!! I haven't missed one yet.

The marathon analogy is very accurate. The way you build your endurance is very much like a marathon; you should start out playing a few games at a time. Eventually, you'll be able to focus for longer periods of time, even though it might take a while. And you wouldn't try to go from a ten minute mile to a seven minutes, you'll just end up exhausting yourself and lowering your self-esteem. The same is for chess; slowly build up your endurance over a long period of time. Remember, the pros have been playing for most of their life, so they have had lots of practice.

Played 280 games today. Sure way of losing points - don't do it. haha

Your problem is that you don’t play 4 hour bullet sessions like ALL the good players.