His father is a Vietnamese businessman and he was born here in the Czech
Republic. Thai Dai Van Nguyen is one of many second-generation Vietnamese
who are fluent is Czech, as in other foreign languages, hard-working,
disciplined and ambitious. At just 16 Van became the youngest chess
grandmaster in the Czech Republic and less than two years later he is among
the five best players in Europe in his age group. I asked him how his
success story began.