Anatoli Karpov

Soviet/Russian chess champion, at the age of 11 he became the youngest candidate master of chess in the Soviet Union and at the age of 15 he became the Soviet Union's youngest chess master. Karpov succeeded Bobby Fischer as world champion in 1975, a title he held until losing to Garry Kasparov in 1985. He lost to Kasparov again in 1990. In 1998, Karpov won the FIDE World Chess Championship, defeating Viswanathan Anand of India in the final. He lost the FIDE World Chess title in 1999 to Russian Aleksandr Khalifman.

I recall being tremendously upset when I lost a game. But Father used to say that without defeats there would be no victories, and that if I let myself get so upset, he wouldn't play with me. [Soviet Life, July 1975]