How is Hnefatafl related to Chess and Go?
History of these ancient boardgames is a bit murky due to their really old age.

The wikipedia article on Hnefatafl is a good starting point, but you can already see from that how vague the information is. Hnefatafl being played since around 400 is certainly older than Chess. In fact, it can be considered a predecessor of Chess.

A not so easy relation is that between Hnefatafl and Go - if it exists at all.

What can be said for certain is that written documents on these three games can placed in a timeline like this:


Go is the oldest with (written!) references dating back to ca. 400 BC
Hnefatafl appears around 800 years later
Chess appears again a few hundred years later.


What is particularly interesting is that Chess is believed to have originated in India, from where it basically traveled to Europe. By around 1000 Chess was far-spread in Europe.

As for the initial development of Hnefatafl, I am not aware of the influences. What is known is that Hnefatafl is tied very closely to the Vikings. Due to their enterprising nature they traveled through most of Europe helping to spread Hnefatafl. Also note that the end of the Viking age coincides with the time of the introduction of Chess, so it is not surprising that the latter continued to dominate the European scene for centuries to come.

Edit: In terms of influence between Hnefatafl and Chess, I'd wager neither significantly influenced the other. From the mere timeline it is possible that Hnefatafl may have influenced the development of Chess. But that would be a risky theory, as I am not aware of any written connection between these two and the spacial separation between Vikings and Indians makes it ever so unlikely.