How to deal with inconsistent performance

Hi folks, I've been playing chess on and off for many years and I'm usually around 1400+ figure in 3,5 & 10 min games. Oddly enough, there are days when I can play exceptionaly well (even surprise myself) I can see combinations and my mind is relatively quick. That's when I move to around 1500 figure but following day I'm completely hopless. My concentration level is zero, I make dull senseless moves and my rating plummets as low as bellow 1300! I can't explain it, I just lose game after game until I stop and virtually turn the computer off. Is this normal? Has anybody else experienced the same problem? What's the best thing to do?

If you can't focus, don't play any more blitz until you can give your games the necessary concetration to earn you the rating you deserve. Hope this helps!

Hello,

I also experience similar issues; personally, I play chess for one/two hours per day, study videos on-line etc. May I suggest joining a local club as one can learn alot from the other members and it is an opportunity to speak to a chess coach. Kind regards.

I would like to suggest two books for you but recommend reading them only if you have read at least one book on chess tactics and one book on chess strategy before.  The books are:  Psychology in Chess by Nicolai Krogious and Winning with Chess Psychology by Pal Benko.  They will help you for sure. Cheers.

True, I only play short games and found that bullet doesn't do any justice to my game. I think I should start mixing it up with, say 20 min games or something short with increment. I used to study openings, midgames and endings years ago but never continued to do so. It's all to do with my concentration level at the moment. Some good suggestion guys & girls here. Thanks.

lmao.

if you play those "others" you better be using that time thinking, calculating and visualizing variations more or less constantly for an hour or two straight. I have this nagging suspicion that it probably wouldn't go that well if you weren't well rested with a clear mind and very solid psychologically. maybe we should ask victor korchnoi about this, I'm still not completely sure if I'm right.

standard time control chess requires a calm detached zen-like mindset. it's actually much more difficult than people imagine to engage in such a battle for an hour or more straight. actually it's probably much harder than bullet. most people have this misconception about longer time controls in chess, "oh, that's easy then because I have all that time to think". right. 

I don't really understand it frankly. how can people not ask themselves the rather obvious question "if bullet is soooooooo much harder than standard and involves the same degree of intellectual rigor or more, why then do professionals play standard games for the big money, titles etc? why spend all that time when they can do the same exact thing within a couple minutes? hmmmmmmm?".

and that would be the truth.