else if being inconsistent

Question

I've been making a simple tic-tac-toe game wherein to check whether a player crossed out a row I've made the following logic:

::board
echo    %one% ^| %two% ^| %three%
echo    ---------
echo    %four% ^| %five% ^| %six%
echo    ---------
echo    %seven% ^| %eight% ^| %nine%
echo.

::rows

if %one% NEQ - (
    if %one% EQU %two% (
        if %two% EQU %three% (
            goto endGame
        )
    )
) else if %four% NEQ - (
    if %four% EQU %five% (
        if %five% EQU %six% (
            goto endGame
        )
    )
) else if %seven% NEQ - (
    if %seven% EQU %eight% (
        if %eight% EQU %nine% (
            goto endGame
        )
    )
)

However, this seems inconsistent as to when the rows including one-two-three & four-five-six get crossed off, the game ends, although for the final row the logic fails.

A similar inconsistency follows for the columns.

Can someone help me understand why so?