Two players, Black and White, alternate placing tokens on the board. After all the tokens are on the board, they can be moved to any adjacent, empty square. The player wins who first gets her pieces in a winning configuration: either a straight line (in any direction) or a close-knit square.

Teeko was invented by John Scarne, an authority on card games in the 50's, who wrote (amazingly enough) in his "Encyclopedia of Games":

"Teeko is the first really new all-skill board game since the invention of Checkers 8,000 years ago. One of the greatest gratifications of my life was the invention and perfection of Teeko, a game I labored 27 years to perfect. I firmly believe that Teeko will some day replace Checkers as the number one all-skill board game throughout the world."

Allegedly such well-known people as Humphret Bogart, Lauren Becall, Joe DiMaggio, and Steve Allen were devotees.