A late evening brought this to mind

Chess and checkers are both ancient games, Chess dating back to 1475 according to BGG

www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/171

and checkers to 1150

www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2083

As two core games with at least some commonalities, the 8X8 board to start, many games have been created over the years encapsulating elements of one game, or the other, or at times of both.

A few have been good, most simply suggest they are the next chess or checkers as a marketing hook.

After all the centuries we might expect every avenue to build a new game with chess and/or checker roots would have long been exhausted.

Yet, in this millennium, some of the best games to have their roots in the big pair have been created

Hive in 2001
www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2655

Arimaa in 2002
www.boardgamegeek.com/game/4616

Cannon in 2003
www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/8553

Cannon certainly has the piece lay out reminiscent of checkers, with a piece movement in a similar vein, albeit diverging into significantly different mechanics from there.

Arimaa in more chess-esque. The use of rabbits in place of pawns, and other animals that replace the power pieces of chess still leaves a set up much like chess. Of course the game was developed as an alternative to computers winning at chess, so the root is obvious. In movement and capture the game diverges, but the root to chess is rather obvious.

Hive is the most different of the three, with no board. However the limited movement queen bee, reminds of a chess king, the grasshopper the jumping of the knight, and the overall game play and end goal seem deeply influenced by chess.

It only proves that great games can still come from ground it might appear has been over-harvested already.

And, it makes you wonder what the next gem will be. Certainly Arimaa, Hive and Cannon are modern classics which should be played for years to come.