Actually, the fear of lossing becomes evident when one comes to a level where something is at stake. Anxiety plays an important role in lossing most especially where the stakes are high. The fear of lossing in a casual game is not as high as compared to a game where a loss would result to a missed Championship, place or whatever. I have seen players whose hands shivers while making their move, i know it is normal but the anxiety is evident. I can still remember an opponent whose rating was 2k+  who (i believe) underestimated our game in a tourney because i was unrated.I really saw droplets of perspiration on his forehead as he was trying to save a lost endgame (mind you, the tournament hall was cold).

The fear of lossing is normal because at the back of our heads we all have goals... to win. Enjoying the game minimizes the fear ,but how do we deal with the fear when the unexpected happens? (Ex. one entered a tourney just to enjoy without a goal to win the tournament. Then suddenly he is in the finals a step closer to the crown where a huge prize is waiting. Fear will start to make its way.)

As for Fischer's attitude... well it has been seen that he has indeed added psychology in his arsenal on and off the board. Karpov during those times was relatively unknown outside the then Soviet Union. His domination of Spassky was incredible and he stood his ground against the "the enfant terrible" Korchnoi in a long series of games in the candidates finals ( If the Fischer-Tal games are tactical try playing that of the Fischer-Korchnoi games in "The Complete Games of Bobby Fischer"). It has been reported then that Fischer then was preparing for Spasskys return to the championship.But this was new.Karpov was the only active Soviet player to breach the 2700 barrier in those years. And at 2705 he is close to Fischer's 2785. An opponent exactly Fischer's opposite (although Karpov was then branded as Fischer 2). Gufeld and the rest of the contributors in "Bobby Fischer from Genius to legend" agreed in their articles that Fischer might have feared the unknown.But many believed (and I do) that he would have beaten karpov then . But he has never met Karpov over the board (and that probably made the differrence).

losing is pretty sweet, especially when you learn nothing from it.

Wave the white flag.

 Do you have any VDOs of this???

Funny, I'm afraid of winning.

Bizzarre.  I have never encountered any gamer anywhere before that has a fear of winning ^^

Don't fear losing. If you fear losing, then you don't keep your head clear and you start to second guess your moves which is a good thing to do to a degree, but not at the expense of being sure of your self. Every move you make, you should be confident that it's the right one. And WHEN you do lose, oh well. Learn from your mistakes. Go back and see what stupid mistakes you made, what simple mistakes you made and so on and so forth. When we lose, we are given a chance to study our weaknesses. Study your games and take your follies to heart.

The Joker

fear of losing?  No.  I HATE losing though.  It is great motivation for going and studying a variation which I am obviously having trouble with.