Steal This Deal! THE PIECESChristopher Columbus was born in the Republic of Genoain what is today Northwestern Italy. His father was a middle-class wool merchant. Columbus learnt to sail from an early age and later worked as a business agenttraveling around Europe to EnglandIreland and later along the West coast of Africa. He was not a scholarbut was an enthusiastic self-educated manwho read extensively on astronomyscience and navigation. He also became fluent in LatinPortuguese and Spanish.Christopher Columbus was a believer in the spherical nature of the world (some Christians still held the view that the world was flat). An ambitious manChristopher Columbus hoped to find a Western trade route to the lucrative spice markets in Asia. Rather than sailing Easthe hoped that sailing west would lead to countries like Japan and China.To gain the necessary funding and support for his journeyshe approached the Catholic Monarchs of Spain. As part of his offer Chess House The Real Masters of Chess