World Snooker Championship

This article is about the WPBSA World Championship for professional snooker players. See also Women 's World Snooker Championship and IBSF World Snooker Championship .

World Snooker Championship
Tournament status
Ranking tournament:	since 1974
Minor ranking tournament:	-
Invitation tournament:	-
Current tournament dates
Defending champion:	Ronnie O'Sullivan
Attendees:	32 (in the final round) 128 (including qualification)
Venue:	Crucible Theater , Sheffield
Prize money (total):	£ 2,231,000
Prize money (winner):	£ 500,000
Frames in the final:	Best of 35
Records
Most wins:	Joe Davis  (15 ×)
Highest Break:	147 ( Maximum Break ): Ronnie O'Sullivan (3 ×) (1997, 2003, 2008) Stephen Hendry (3 ×) (1995, 2009, 2012) Robert Milkins (2 ×) (Qual. 2006, Qual. 2012) Cliff Thorburn (1983) Jimmy White (1992) Mark J. Williams (2005) Allister Carter (2008) John Higgins (2020)
Venue (s) on the map
Birmingham 3 2 London Blackpool 1 Liverpool 4th Middlesbrough jersey Sheffield United Kingdom : 1 - Manchester , 2 - Chesterfield , 3 - Nottingham , 4 - Bolton Melbourne Sydney Australia

The World Snooker Championship (officially World Snooker Championship) determines the world champion in professional snooker every year . The tournament is hosted by the World Snooker Federation WPBSA .

The highest prize money and the most awarded world ranking list points make the world championship the most important and prestigious tournament of the season. It is also a snooker tournament with a very long tradition; the World Cup was held for the first time in 1927.

Since 1977 the finals have taken place at the end of April for a period of 17 days at the Crucible Theater in Sheffield and always marks the end of the Main Tour season . The reigning world champion is Ronnie O'Sullivan from England . Joe Davis from England , who won the first 15 world titles in a row by 1946, is the record world champion. Stephen Hendry holds the record of the modern era with a total of seven titles.

history

The world championship trophy

overview

For the first time the World Snooker Championship was held in Birmingham in 1927 . The Englishman Joe Davis , who clearly dominated snooker in the following years, was the first world champion. Until 1940 - from then on the title fights could no longer be played because of the Second World War - he remained undefeated in all 14 world championship tournaments. When the tournament was held again in 1946, he won his 15th and final title and resigned as an undefeated champion. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, his younger brother Fred Davis and the Scot Walter Donaldson were the most successful players.

In 1952 there was a break between the then BACC (Billards Association and Control Council) and the players' association, so that two world championships were held that year. In the following years only the tournament organized by the players, the World Matchplay , continued. Fred Davis dominated this era until the title fights were set in 1958.

1964 returned to the world championship in the form of challenge matches, in each of which a challenger competed against the defending champion. During this time the Englishman John Pulman was the serial winner. In 1969 they returned to the form of tournaments. In the 1970s, Welshman Ray Reardon stood out with a total of six world championship titles.

The venue of the tournament changed frequently at first until the Crucible Theater in Sheffield in 1977 became a permanent venue. A year later, the BBC began extensive television coverage. This promoted the increasing popularity of the world championship, which was also reflected in higher prize money. In the 1980s it was the Englishman Steve Davis who dominated the competition with a modern, break-oriented game. He was able to win the title six times between 1981 and 1989, two more times he was in the finals. The 1985 final between Davis and Dennis Taylor had the highest viewing figures for any sports broadcast on British television.

The early 1990s were shaped by the duel between the players Stephen Hendry and Jimmy White , who met four times in the final between 1990 and 1994. Hendry always had the better end for himself. Jimmy White, on the other hand, went down in snooker history as one of the best players without a world championship title with a total of six defeats in the final. Hendry is the record world champion of the modern snooker era with seven titles .

Since the late 1990s, the world's top has moved closer together. After Hendry, until 2013 ( Ronnie O'Sullivan ) no player was able to defend his title. The most successful modern players include O'Sullivan with six, John Higgins with four, and Mark Williams and Mark Selby with three world titles each.

year	World Champion
1927	Joe Davis
1928	Joe Davis
1929	Joe Davis
1930	Joe Davis
1931	Joe Davis
1932	Joe Davis
1933	Joe Davis
1934	Joe Davis
1935	Joe Davis
1936	Joe Davis
1937	Joe Davis
1938	Joe Davis
1939	Joe Davis
1940	Joe Davis

The early years: 1927 to 1940

World championships in the English Billiards discipline were held as early as 1870 . From this the snooker sport developed at the end of the 19th century, which was given a uniform set of rules in 1919.

In 1924, some players suggested organizing an official snooker world championship at the association. However, the BACC found that snooker was not yet popular enough for this.

Record world champion Joe Davis

In the early years of the World Cup, games were played in different locations and over a period of several months (usually from November to May). The first World Cup game started on November 29, 1926 and ended on December 6. It was played between Melbourne Inman and Tom Newman at Thurston's Hall in Leicester Square in London and it ended 8: 5 for Inman. The final of the 1927 World Cup was finally held from May 9 to 12, 1927 in Camkin's Hall in Birmingham. Joe Davis won the final against Tom Dennis with 20:11 frames . As the winner, he received a cash prize of £ 6.10. With 60 points, Albert Cope scored the highest break of the first edition of the World Cup, followed by Davis with 57. A total of 10 players took part in the World Cup.

At the second World Cup the following year, six players initially played for the right to challenge defending champion Davis. Fred Lawrence prevailed and defeated Tom Newman in the playoff with 12: 7. Davis defended his title with a 16-13 win over Lawrence.

In 1929 the number of participants dropped to five players. Davis was able to defend his title in the final, which this time took place in Nottingham , with a 19:14 win over Tom Dennis.

In the following years, the World Cup stagnated in terms of the number of participants. While Davis' renewed victory in London in 1930, in which he also scored a new highest break at World Championships at 79, six participants started, the number of participants reached a historic low in 1931 with two players. Davis won the game against Dennis in the back room of a pub in Nottingham that belonged to Dennis himself. Until 1935, the number of participants was between two and five players, with Davis always able to defend his title. With the New Zealander Clark McConachy , who defeated Dennis in the semifinals in 1932, a non-Englishman was able to challenge Joe Davis in the final for the first time. From 1935 onwards, Thurston's Hall in London was the permanent venue for the following six world championships. It was there that the first century break in the history of the World Cup was achieved, in the 1935 semifinals Joe Davis scored a series of 110 points.

In 1936 there was a new record with twelve participants. Davis' dominance remained unbroken: With 34:27 he defeated Horace Lindrum from Australia. This final was reissued a year later; Davis kept the upper hand again, even if his win was narrower with 32:29. 1938 Lindrum did not take part in the world championship, so there was a new final opponent for series winner Davis with the Englishman Sidney Smith . Smith eliminated Fred Davis , Joe's younger brother , in the semifinals , who had participated for the first time the year before. However, Smith also had to admit defeat to Joe Davis in the final with 27:34. In 1939 15 players took part in the tournament; again it was Joe Davis and Smith who made it to the final, which Davis won with 43:30.

In 1940, for the time being, the last World Cup took place because of the Second World War. For the first time there was a duel between the brothers Joe and Fred Davis in the final. Joe won his fourteenth world title 37:36.

year	World Champion
1946	Joe Davis
1947	Walter Donaldson
1948	Fred Davis
1949	Fred Davis
1950	Walter Donaldson
1951	Fred Davis
1952	Horace Lindrum

Resumption of gaming operations from 1946

In 1946 Joe Davis won for the 15th and last time, making him the record world champion. Since he no longer participated in the world championships, he remained undefeated.

In 1947, Joe's younger brother Fred was the clear favorite for the title. However, it was the Scot Walter Donaldson who went down in snooker history as the first world champion after the era of Joe Davis, when he surprisingly defeated Fred Davis in the final in London with 82:63. Also in the following years the duel between Fred Davis and Donaldson dominated the finals. In 1948 and 1949 Davis managed to win the title; In 1950, however, Donaldson was able to prevail again against Davis at the world championship held for the first time in Tower Circus in Blackpool .

year	World Champion
1952	Fred Davis
1953	Fred Davis
1954	Fred Davis
1955	Fred Davis
1956	Fred Davis
1957	John Pulman

Professional Matchplay Championship: 1952 to 1957

In 1952, after disputes between the Billiards Association and Control Council (BACC) and some players, two world championships were held. The players' association, which was led by Joe Davis, accused the BACC of withholding too much of the World Cup revenue. Only two players (Horace Lindrum from Australia and Clark McConachy from New Zealand) took part in the BACC tournament. It was played at Houldsworth Hall in Manchester . Lindrum, who won the longest final in history with 94:49, is not listed as a snooker world champion in some statistics, as the Professional Matchplay Championship organized by the players is mostly viewed as the "real" world championship (also by the current world snooker association WPBSA ). On the other hand, the two largest snooker archives on the Internet mention Lindrum's success in their statistics. The two previous world champions, Donaldson and Davis, offered Lindrum a game for £ 500 each after his win to determine the “real world champion”. However, he denied having ever received a written invitation to such a duel.

Davis continued his winning streak at the Professional Matchplay Championship by winning the title between 1952 and 1954 - again in the final against Donaldson. From 1955 Donaldson stopped playing and so the Englishman John Pulman succeeded for the first time in the final; there, however, Davis retained the upper hand with 37:34. The new edition of the endgame a year later, Davis won again with only three frames difference. In 1957 the last world championship tournament took place on Jersey . In the absence of Davis Pulman defeated Northern Irish Jackie Rea with 39:34. In the meantime, participation in the tournament has declined sharply and the field has shrunk to four players.

Between 1958 and 1963 the world championship was no longer held.

year	World Champion
1964	John Pulman
	John Pulman
1965	John Pulman
	John Pulman
	John Pulman
1966	John Pulman
1968	John Pulman

Challenge Matches: 1964 to 1968

With the approval of the BACC, Rex Williams reintroduced the 1964 World Championship on the basis of challenge matches . The world championships were no longer held in tournament form, but a single player was allowed to challenge the reigning world champion; This is handled similarly in boxing or chess, for example.

The duels took place irregularly and sometimes even several times a year. In total there were seven duels in the five years between 1964 and 1968. The reigning world champion from 1957, John Pulman , decided all of his Challenge matches for himself. Davis (3 ×), Williams (2 ×), the South African Fred Van Rensburg and Eddie Charlton from Australia were challenged .

In 1965 Rex Williams scored a new highest break with 142 points against Pulman. He broke Joe Davis' 19-year-old record. Two of the three duels that took place in 1965 were played in different locations in South Africa. This was the first time that a World Snooker Championship was not decided in the United Kingdom.

year	World Champion
1969	John Spencer
1970	Ray Reardon
1971	John Spencer
1972	Alex Higgins
1973	Ray Reardon
1974	Ray Reardon
1975	Ray Reardon
1976	Ray Reardon

Knockout tournaments: 1969 to 1976

From 1969 they returned to the classic form of tournaments. The World Professional Billiards & Snooker Association (WPBSA), founded in 1968, has been the organizing world association ever since. With John Spencer there was a new world champion who prevailed in a field of eight participants in London. With the cigarette brand Player's No. 6 there was a main sponsor for the tournament for the first time.

The following year Ray Reardon from Wales won his first world championship title. In 1971 the venue for the tournament changed from London to Australia . There they first played in a group stage in which the four best-placed players qualified for the semifinals. Spencer eventually won his second title. In 1972 the tournament returned to England (Birmingham). There the Northern Irishman Alex Higgins won the final against defending champion Spencer.

In 1973 and 1974 Reardon respectively won in Manchester by winning the final over Charlton and Graham Miles . A year later, the World Cup was held again in Australia. In Melbourne , Reardon defeated local hero Charlton 38:30 in a remake of the 1973 final.

In 1976 a main sponsor was won with the Embassy cigarette brand , which acted as the tournament's namesake until 2005. The tournament prize money was raised to £ 6,000 for the winner. In Middlesbrough , Reardon won for the fourth time in a row, this time against Alex Higgins, the 1972 world champion.

The Crucible Era

With the introduction of the world snooker rankings in the 1976/77 season, the tournament was moved to the Crucible Theater in Sheffield . The main hall, which can hold 980 spectators, has been the venue for the title fights ever since. The continuation of the traditional event is contractually secured until 2027.

The entrepreneur and snooker player Mike Watterson took over the role of promoter of the Snooker World Championship in 1977. His goal was to improve the image of snooker as a whole. By his own admission, he was fed up with professional snooker in places like airplane hangars, which were cold and smoky and where spectators had to sit on benches. These would be conditions that he did not want to endure forever, neither as a player nor as a spectator. On the advice of his wife Carole, he took a closer look at the Crucible Theater in August 1976. With the tiered rows of seats and the deeper pit, the interior of the building reminded him of Thurston's Hall, which had served as the venue for some snooker world championships in the 1930s. Although Watterson initially failed to find a sponsor for the tournament, he promised the players £ 17,000 in prize money. After the search for a local sponsor had finally failed, he finally signed a contract with Embassy , which had already sponsored the tournament in Manchester the previous year - the prize money was guaranteed.

A ticket cost £ 0.75 for a morning session and £ 3.50 for the final. The expected number of visitors was exceeded by far on the first day. While 350 paying spectators came in the morning, there were already 550 on the first evening. In total, more than 20,000 spectators came during the tournament.

“Throughout the doldrum years of the late fifties and early sixties we lived in hope that the game would receive wider coverage but we never thought it would reach the heights it now has. One of the biggest turning points was Mike Watterson's decision to use the Crucible Theater in Sheffield for the world championship and the increased involvement of the television companies which followed. [...] The event is now accepted as one of the great sporting occasions and Sheffield is now the natural home of the world game. "

- Fred Davis : Preface to Snooker's Crucible, 1988

“During the doldrums of the late 1950s and early 1960s, we hoped the game could reach wider reach, but we never thought it would reach such a heyday. One of the major turning points was Mike Watterson's decision to use the Crucible Theater in Sheffield as the venue for the World Cup and the growing concern of television networks. [...] The tournament is now recognized as one of the largest sporting events and Sheffield is now the home of the now world-wide snooker sport. "

The move to the Crucible Theater is considered to be the beginning of the "modern era" in snooker, as the sport developed from then on into the competitive sport with today's popularity. Benefiting from the daily TV broadcast by the BBC , which began in 1978, the field of participants, the performance density, the prize money and the general interest in them grew continuously. Another success factor was a tournament mode that was now almost unchanged.

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  The Crucible Theater (front view)

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  The Crucible Theater (rear view)

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  Public viewing outside the arena (2008)

year	World Champion
1977	John Spencer
1978	Ray Reardon
1979	Terry Griffiths
1980	Cliff Thorburn
1981	Steve Davis
1982	Alex Higgins
1983	Steve Davis
1984	Steve Davis
1985	Dennis Taylor
1986	Joe Johnson
1987	Steve Davis
1988	Steve Davis
1989	Steve Davis

1977 to 1989

At the first tournament at the Crucible Theater, Spencer won his third title by beating Cliff Thorburn from Canada in the final . In the following years there was a widening of the performance density among the players, so initially no participant could win the world championship title twice in a row.

After 1978 Ray Reardon won his sixth and final trophy, it was a year later, his compatriot Terry Griffiths , who won a complete surprise as unseeded players in only his second professional tournament title. The prize money had now risen to £ 35,500, of which £ 10,000 went to the winner.

In 1980 , Thorburn was the first time a Canadian and thus a non-European won a world championship. In addition to Thorburn, there were other Canadians in the top of the world at that time with players like Kirk Stevens , Bill Werbeniuk and Bob Chaperon . The final frames of the final were overshadowed by the hostage-taking event at the Iranian embassy in London .

In 1981 it was then with Steve Davis - not related to Joe and Fred Davis - an Englishman again who won the title. After defeating the world champions of the previous two years, Griffiths and Thorburn, in the quarter-finals and semifinals, he secured the title with an 18:12 win over Doug Mountjoy from Wales. In 1982 Alex Higgins prevailed again, who had won his first world championship title ten years earlier. His opponent was Reardon, who played his last World Championship final at the age of 49. The total tournament prize money distributed exceeded the £ 100,000 mark for the first time.

Cliff Thorburn achieved the first maximum break at a world championship in 1983 in the round of 16 against Griffiths . It was also only the second official break of this kind that was played in a professional tournament. There was an extra £ 8,000 bonus for this achievement. However, world champion was Steve Davis for the second time, who clearly defeated Thorburn in the final 18: 6.

With the increasing popularity of the tournament and the annually growing prize money, the number of players who wanted to take part in the World Cup also increased significantly. In 1984 , for example, there were 94 participants, so that several preliminary round games were necessary. Steve Davis became the first player to defend his world title at the Crucible Theater. Fred Davis set the record for the oldest player in a Crucible-era World Cup game when he last played at the age of 70.

In the 1985 final between Steve Davis and Dennis Taylor , 18.5 million Britons followed the decision well after midnight, which only came after 35 frames with the last black ball. Taylor won his only world championship title at the so-called Black ball final, which is considered to be one of the tightest and most exciting in snooker history. The audience rating was the highest ever for a British sporting event and for a broadcast after midnight.

With Joe Johnson - 18:12 win over Davis - an outsider won the tournament in 1986 . He had never before won a match at the Crucible Theater, so betting providers traded him at odds of 1: 150. A year later , Davis took revenge with an 18:14 final win over Johnson. In the years 1988 won and 1989 Davis, which he titled 1989 John Parrott with 18: 3 taught the clearest final defeat of all time.

• 

  Alex Higgins  - two-time world champion (1972, 1982)

• 

  Cliff Thorburn  - 1980 World Champion

• 

  Steve Davis  - six-time world champion in the 1980s

• 

  Dennis Taylor  - 1985 World Champion

year	World Champion
1990	Stephen Hendry
1991	John Parrott
1992	Stephen Hendry
1993	Stephen Hendry
1994	Stephen Hendry
1995	Stephen Hendry
1996	Stephen Hendry
1997	Ken Doherty
1998	John Higgins
1999	Stephen Hendry
2000	Mark Williams

1990 to 2000

In 1990 Davis did not reach the finals for the first time since 1982. In the semifinals he lost 14:16 to Jimmy White , who lost the final 12:18 to the then 21-year-old Scottish Stephen Hendry . Hendry has since become the youngest world snooker champion of all time. The following year Hendry failed in the quarterfinals against Steve James . The final was played between Parrott and White, Parrott won the game 18:11.

Jimmy White managed the second maximum break in a world championship in the first round match against Tony Drago from Malta in 1992 . Another special feature in the first round was Parrott's 10-0 win over the Australian Charlton, the only whitewashed victory at the Crucible Theater. In the final, the 1990 final was reissued. Hendry won his second title with a run of 10 frame wins in a row (record in a final) after White had already led 14-8.

In 1993, James Wattana from Thailand was the first player from the East Asian region to make it to the semi-finals, where he was defeated by White. Hendry had to admit defeat again, the defeat being 5:18 very clear. For the first time, the total prize money was seven digits at exactly one million pounds.

1994 saw White and Hendry clash for the fourth and last time in a World Championship final. At 17:17, White missed a supposedly simple black ball off the spot in the decisive frame, whereupon Hendry won with a 58 break frame and match. The duel between White and Hendry was repeated in 1995, but this time in the semi-finals. Hendry won again, with a maximum break in the twelfth frame. In the final, Hendry met Nigel Bond , whom he defeated 18: 9. Andy Hicks made it to the semi-finals immediately on his Crucible debut; the last player to do so was Terry Griffiths, the surprise world champion of 1979.

In the 1996 World Cup finals, the Englishman Peter Ebdon made it to the finals alongside Hendry. Ebdon knocked out White and Davis on the way, but against Hendry he had to admit defeat at 12:18. With a total of 48 century breaks, a new record was set at this world championship, which was to be broken again two years later.

In the first round in 1997, Ronnie O'Sullivan played the fastest maximum break in snooker history. In just 5 minutes and 20 seconds, he scored 147 points. The world championship that year was the first Irishman to win Ken Doherty . He was also the first player to become both IBSF amateur world champion (1989) and professional world champion (1997). With the 18:12 final win over Hendry, he also ended his record series of 29 consecutive matches at the Crucible.

In 1998 Doherty again made it to the final, in which he was defeated by the 22-year-old Scotsman John Higgins . The following year, Hendry won his seventh and final world title. He overtook Reardon and Steve Davis and is the record world champion of the modern snooker era. In the final he won against Mark Williams from Wales 18:11. A year later, he became the first left-handed world champion. In the final, he defeated his compatriot Matthew Stevens just 18:16.

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  Stephen Hendry  - seven-time world champion in the 1990s

• 

  John Parrott  - 1991 World Champion

• 

  Ken Doherty  - 1997 World Champion

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  Jimmy White  - six-time vice world champion

From 2001 onwards

year	World Champion
2001	Ronnie O'Sullivan
2002	Peter Ebdon
2003	Mark Williams
2004	Ronnie O'Sullivan
2005	Shaun Murphy
2006	Graeme Dott
2007	John Higgins
2008	Ronnie O'Sullivan
2009	John Higgins
2010	Neil Robertson
2011	John Higgins
2012	Ronnie O'Sullivan
2013	Ronnie O'Sullivan
2014	Mark Selby
2015	Stuart Bingham
2016	Mark Selby
2017	Mark Selby
2018	Mark Williams
2019	Judd Trump
2020	Ronnie O'Sullivan

With victories at the world championships in 2001 , 2004 , 2008 , 2012 and 2013 , Ronnie O'Sullivan was the first player in the new millennium to win five world championships. Even if he failed in the first round in 2003 , at that time he was the only player to record a second maximum break in a World Snooker Championship. In 2009 Hendry did the same; however, O'Sullivan had increased to three maximum breaks the year before.

But Hendry was able to set another record: He scored 16 Century Breaks in the 2002 World Cup. Nevertheless, he had to admit defeat to Peter Ebdon 17:18 in his ninth final.

In 2003, Mark Williams won his second world championship title. In a close final he defeated Ken Doherty with 18:16. Doherty's previous results were also all close (10: 9, 13:12, 13: 8, 17:16), so that he had to complete the largest "workload" of a Crucible finalist with 132 of 137 possible frames. In 2003 tournament prize money reached an all-time high of £ 1,682,900.

The surprise world champion of 2005 , Shaun Murphy , was only 48th in the world snooker rankings at the beginning of the season. This makes Murphy the lowest-placed player to become world champion since the world rankings were introduced. Although he only moved up to 21st place with his victory, he was set as world champion in all Main Tour tournaments in the following season.

The following two World Championships went down in history with their long finals: In 2006 , Graeme Dott had to fight until 12:52 a.m. local time to defeat Ebdon at 18:14. The longest frame between the two opponents lasted 74 minutes and 8 seconds, making it the longest frame in tournament history. Although it took John Higgins one frame less to beat Mark Selby at 18:13 in 2007 , it took another three minutes longer (until 12:55 a.m. local time) to finally win the trophy for the second time. In the semifinals, Higgins managed the one thousandth Century Break that was played at the Crucible Theater.

Higgins' third and fourth titles followed in 2009 and 2011 . With Australian Neil Robertson was in 2010 a non-Europeans for the first time win the World Cup after 30 years.

At the 2012 World Cup , the final was reissued from the 2008 final between O'Sullivan and Allister Carter , which O'Sullivan won 18:11. After losing to Stephen Maguire in the quarterfinals , Stephen Hendry announced his resignation. In lap one he had scored his third maximum break in the Crucible. In the season after his fourth title, O'Sullivan took part in almost no tournament for health reasons, among other things, but entered 2013 to defend his title. Although he had practically no tournament practice, he again easily reached the finals and finally defeated Barry Hawkins 18:12. This made him the third player after Steve Davis and Stephen Hendry to repeat his Crucible win the following year.

At the 2014 World Snooker Championship , O'Sullivan made it to the final for the third time in a row. After a 10: 5 lead he seemed on the way to the title hat trick, but with a determined second day of the final Mark Selby turned the match to 18:14 and thus cemented his reputation as a comeback player. For O'Sullivan it was the first World Cup final defeat.

There was an underdog final in 2015 , which Stuart Bingham beat Shaun Murphy at 18:15 .

The following year, at the 2016 World Snooker Championship , the Chinese Ding Junhui made it to the final for the first time, where he had to admit defeat to Mark Selby , the 2014 World Champion, with 14:18.

In 2017 , Selby was the fourth player to defend his world title at the Crucible Theater. The Englishman won the new edition of the pairing of the 2007 finals with 18:15. But he missed three titles in a row in 2018 , as only Steve Davis and Hendry had managed until then . Instead, Mark Williams won the World Cup for the third time 15 years after his last title. At the age of 43, he was the second oldest crucible world champion; only Ray Reardon was two years older in 1978.

In 2019 Judd Trump won the title for the first time; he defeated John Higgins 18: 9 in the reissue of the 2011 final. The 2020 edition was postponed in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic . It now took place between late July and mid-August. The winner was Ronnie O'Sullivan, who won his sixth world title and thus also became the first player since Joe Davis, who was successful again 19 years after his first world title.

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  John Higgins  - 1998, 2007, 2009 and 2011 world champion

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  Ronnie O'Sullivan  - World Champion of 2001, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2013 and 2020

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  Mark J. Williams  - World Champion in 2000, 2003 and 2018

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  Peter Ebdon  - World Champion of 2002

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  Shaun Murphy  - 2005 World Champion

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  Graeme Dott  - World Champion of 2006

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  Neil Robertson  - 2010 World Champion

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  Mark Selby  - 2014, 2016 and 2017 world champion

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  Stuart Bingham  - 2015 World Champion

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  Judd Trump  - World Champion of the Year 2019

Current mode

qualification

Since the field of participants in the final round in the Crucible Theater is limited to 32 players, a qualification will be played out in advance. The 16 best players in the world snooker ranking are automatically placed for the final round . The reigning world champion is automatically qualified; if he is not in the top 16 of the world rankings, the world number sixteenth must qualify.

The qualification is played in three main rounds in best-of-19 mode. The players compete against each other according to their world ranking position. In the first round 64 games are played. The winners then compete against each other in the second round. The 32 players who have survived round 2 then determine in the third round the 16 players who qualify for the final round at the Crucible Theater.

Before the Snooker Main Tour was limited to (usually) 96 players in the early 2000s, there were significantly more qualifying rounds that were also accessible to amateur players. In 1999, for example, there were 14 qualifying rounds, with the favored players only joining much later.

While there is a dedicated women's snooker world championship, the WPBSA’s world championship is not limited to male players. Very few women manage to make the leap into professional snooker and thus qualify for this tournament. With Reanne Evans one of the most successful women snooker players has already participated in the qualification several times. There is also an amateur world championship hosted by the IBSF .

Finals

Since 1969 the main round has been played in the knockout system . 32 players compete against each other, who in the best case have five rounds (1st round, round of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals, finals) ahead of them. The following table shows how many frames are played in which round.

round	maximum number of frames ("Best of ...")	frames needed to win	Frames per session
1 round	19th	10	9-10
Round of 16	25th	13	8 - 8 - 9
Quarter finals	25th	13	8 - 8 - 9
Semifinals	33	17th	8 - 8 - 8 - 9
final	35	18th	8 - 9 - 8 - 10

Since 1982 the world championship has been held over a period of 17 days. There are usually three sessions played each day. The morning session is only canceled on the 6th, 9th (sometimes also on the 10th) and 13th day and on the two final days. The last day of the finals has always been the first Monday in May since 1983 (with three exceptions), a spring bank holiday in Great Britain that is off work .

The morning session starts at 10:00 a.m., the afternoon session between 1:00 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. and the evening session between 7:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. (all information in GMT ). In every session there is a mid-session interval after the fourth frame , a short break during which the players can withdraw.

The division of the 46 sessions over the 17 tournament days using the example of the 2011 World Snooker Championship is shown in a table below:

session	Sat	So	Mon	Tuesday	Wed	do	Fr.	Sat	So	Mon	Tuesday	Wed	do	Fr.	Sat	So	Mon
morning	1	4th	7th	10	13		18th	21st	24		29	32		37	40
afternoon	2	5	8th	11	14th	16	19th	22nd	25th	27	30th	33	35	38	41	43	45
Eve	3	6th	9	12	15th	17th	20th	23	26th	28	31	34	36	39	42	44	46

	World ranking points
winner	10,000
finalist	08,000
Semi-finalist	06,400
Quarter finalist	05,000
Last 16	03,800
Last 32	02,800 (1,400)
Last 48	02,300 (1,150)
Last 64	01,800 0.(900)
Last 80	01,300 0.(650)
Last 96	00.800 0.(400)

Influence on the world rankings

The world rankings were introduced after the 1976 World Cup and initially only referred to the results of the previous three World Cups. The point system at that time was still quite simple; there were five points for the winner, four for the losing finalist, three for the two losing semi-finalists, and so on.

It was not until the 1982/83 season that other tournaments were added with the International Open and the Professional Players Tournament , which had an impact on the world rankings. The world championship was upgraded to ten points for the winner and the points used were limited to the last two (instead of three) years. Over time, more and more tournaments were added and the point system became more complex. Of all the tournaments, however, the World Cup always had by far the greatest influence on the world rankings.

The last point awarded is shown in the table on the right. The numbers in brackets indicate the number of points for an opening defeat of a seeded player. For comparison: The tournament with the second most points is the UK Championship with 8,000 points for the winner.

With the 2014/15 season, the point system was abolished and replaced by adding up the prize money earned over two years, whereby only the prize money earned in world ranking tournaments is counted. Since the prize money at the World Cup is the highest, the performance there still has the greatest influence on the world rankings.

Prize money

Prize money distribution 2019
World Champion	0 £ 500,000
Vice world champion	0 £ 200,000
Semi-finalists	0 £ 100,000
Quarter finalists	0 0£ 50,000
Round of 16 players	0 0£ 30,000
at first round off	0 0£ 20,000
Highest break	0 0£ 10,000
Maximum break	00£ 50,000
total	£ 2,231,000

The prize money is distributed according to a specific key. A total of £ 2,231,000 was paid out in 2019, of which the winner alone received just under a fifth. The prize money rose steadily from the mid-1970s; In 1982 it was over £ 100,000 for the first time, over £ 500,000 for the first time in 1989, £ 1,000,000 for the first time in 1993 and over £ 1,500,000 from 2001 to 2003. With the change of the main sponsor there was a slump, so that 2006 and 2007 again fell below one million pounds. A total of £ 1,110,000 in prize money was awarded for several years starting in 2009 and increasing steadily from 2014 onwards. In 2019, it broke the two million mark for the first time at £ 2,231,000.

There is a special price for the player with the highest break in the tournament. A distinction is made between qualification and main round. If several players reach a highest break or a maximum break, the sum is divided.

For a maximum break there was an extra bonus from 1978 to 2010. While it was £ 10,000 at the beginning, it was gradually increased in the 1980s; from the 1995 World Cup, £ 147,000 was finally distributed. Since the number of maximum breaks played in other tournaments also increased continuously in the 2000s, the sum became a significant cost factor for the World Snooker Association. For the first time since 1978 there was no extra bonus at the 2011 World Cup. After expressions of displeasure on the part of some players, a jackpot system was introduced at the beginning of the 2011/12 snooker season, according to which the bonus for a maximum break in every major ranking tournament is increased by £ 5,000 if no player succeeds in breaking a 147.

Television coverage

British space

Although some attempts had been made in the 1950s to establish snooker on black and white television by labeling the various balls with their respective numerical value (similar to pool table), regular broadcasts only began with the spread of color television at the end of the year 1960s and the television coverage of the BBC from the Pot Black Cup 1969 by. This made the sport of snooker popular in Great Britain.

In 1969 and 1970 the John Player company sponsored the World Snooker Championships. However, since television was not yet interested in broadcasting the long world championship format, snooker was withdrawn. However, in the early 1970s, the West Nally Group (a sports marketing company), along with the Gallaher Group , managed to sponsor a few snooker tournaments and place them on television. So it was decided to sponsor the World Snooker Championships from 1972 to 1974 with Gallagher's Park Drive brand . At first, however, television only broadcast crucial sessions of the semi-finals and finals. At that time, a complete final match, for example with 75 possible frames, dragged on for five days and thus seemed too long for a complete reporting.

In the first Embassy- sponsored World Cup in 1976, the BBC planned to broadcast the highlights of the finals. Originally they wanted to go on the air on the last day of the final, but Ray Reardon led against Alex Higgins early on with a large margin, so that they had to start a day earlier than planned. The hectic TV lights, however, seemed to bother the players so much that Reardon flared up at some point and the lights had to be changed.

After the West Nally Group withdrew from snooker in 1975, the snooker player and entrepreneur Mike Watterson took over the role of promoter in 1977 . The BBC broadcast was extended to the last three days of the final. The high ratings ensured that there was finally daily reporting in the following year, whereupon the Snooker World Championship developed into a major media event. In 1978 the BBC showed a 50-minute summary of the games every day and also reported live from the tournament for a total of 26 hours. In 1980, the live coverage was already 70 hours.

The audience ratings rose steadily from year to year: In 1978 there were 7 million viewers watching the final, in 1980 it saw 14.5 million viewers and in 1981 it was 15.6 million. The morning sessions during the working days also achieved a comparatively high audience rate with an average of 1.5 million viewers. The surge in audience interest culminated in a record audience rating of 18.5 million viewers during the Black ball finals between Steve Davis and Dennis Taylor in 1985. Another high audience rating was determined for the 1994 World Cup final when Stephen won 13.8 million viewers Hendry saw over Jimmy White .

The close final between Stephen Hendry and Peter Ebdon at the 2002 World Snooker Championship was watched by an average of 5.4 million people on BBC2, and almost eight million at peak times. The final even surpassed the final of the English Football Cup ( FA Cup ) between Arsenal FC and Chelsea, which was broadcast on BBC1 .

In the recent past, the 2011 World Cup brought a total of 27.1 million viewers over the entire tournament (6.6 million in the finals at peak times and 3.9 million on average), a significant increase over previous years.

Outside the UK

According to the WPBSA , the World Cup is currently broadcast in over 75 countries around the world.

For a long time, the popularity of snooker - and thus the World Snooker Championship - was mainly limited to Great Britain. Since around the turn of the millennium, Eurosport has also broadcast the snooker world championship in many other European countries. In Germany, the audience ratings of up to one million viewers at peak times are particularly high for continental European standards and make the World Snooker Championship, along with the Tour de France , one of the channel's most watched sporting events.

Meanwhile, however, the largest market for snooker in terms of total viewers is the People's Republic of China. The state television sports channel ( CCTV-5 ) and the Shanghai Media Group broadcast there. The semi-finals of the 2011 World Cup between Ding Junhui and Judd Trump saw 31.8 million Chinese at the top, with an average of 19.4 million.

Sponsors

In the years 1969 and 1970 sponsored John Player with the brand Player's No. 6 the world championship. Other tobacco companies followed with the Gallaher Group (brand: Park Drive, 1972–1974) and Imperial Brands (brand: Embassy, 1976–2005). However, when the law was changed in 2003, tobacco advertising in Great Britain was severely restricted. As early as the 1980s, there were regular anti-smoking protests in front of the Crucible Theater, where posters with the words “Smoking Kills” or “Snooker Blood Money” were shown.

After a two-year transition period, a betting provider, 888 Holding, took over sponsorship. Although a five-year contract was agreed, 888 withdrew after three years. From 2009 to 2012 the betting company Betfred had a sponsorship contract. In 2013 Betfair sponsored the World Cup and in 2014 Dafabet. From 2015 Betfred again took over the long-term sponsorship.

statistics

→ Main article : World Snooker Championship / Statistics

Final results

→ Main article : List of world champions in snooker

(including all final results)

Player Statistics

Number of world championship titles

Status: after the 2020 World Cup

space	player	Victories	Years
1.	Joe Davis	15th	1927-1940, 1946
2.	Fred Davis	8th	1948, 1949, 1951, 1952–1956 (World Matchplay)
	John Pulman	8th	1957 (World Matchplay), 1964 (2 ×), 1965 (3 ×), 1966, 1968
4th	Stephen Hendry	7th	1990, 1992-1996, 1999
5.	Ray Reardon	6th	1970, 1973-1976, 1978
	Steve Davis	6th	1981, 1983, 1984, 1987-1989
	Ronnie O'Sullivan	6th	2001, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2013, 2020
8th.	John Higgins	4th	1998, 2007, 2009, 2011
9.	John Spencer	3	1969, 1971, 1977
	Mark Williams	3	2000, 2003, 2018
	Mark Selby	3	2014, 2016, 2017
12.	Walter Donaldson	2	1947, 1950
	Alex Higgins	2	1972, 1982
14th	Horace Lindrum	1	1952
	Terry Griffiths	1	1979
	Cliff Thorburn	1	1980
	Dennis Taylor	1	1985
	Joe Johnson	1	1986
	John Parrott	1	1991
	Ken Doherty	1	1997
	Peter Ebdon	1	2002
	Shaun Murphy	1	2005
	Graeme Dott	1	2006
	Neil Robertson	1	2010
	Stuart Bingham	1	2015
	Judd Trump	1	2019

"Curse of the Crucible"

→ Main article : Curse of the Crucible

The so-called "Crucible Curse" (Engl .: Crucible curse ) refers to the fact that in the Crucible era no Snooker World Champion his first gained title successfully defended the following year. Joe Johnson (1987) and Ken Doherty (1998) at least made it to the final the following year. With Steve Davis , Stephen Hendry , Ronnie O'Sullivan and Mark Selby only four players managed to win two titles in a row, but none of them were the first two titles.

Before the Crucible era, players Joe Davis , Fred Davis and John Pulman were able to defend their first title at the following World Cup.

Nations Statistics

Number of world titles

Status: after the 2020 World Cup

space	country	Total number of world titles	Number of vers. player
1.	England	55	13
2.	Scotland	14th	4th
3.	Wales	10	3
4th	Northern Ireland	3	2
5.	Australia	2	2
6th	Canada	1	1
6th	Ireland	1	1

Number by nation

→ Main article : World Snooker Championship / Participant

Applies to the period 1977–2019.

space	country	verse. Attendees	biggest success
1.	England	111	victory
2.	Scotland	20th	victory
3.	Wales	18th	victory
4th	People's Republic of China	11	final
5.	Canada	10	victory
5.	Ireland	10	victory
7th	Northern Ireland	8th	victory
8th.	Australia	5	victory
9.	Thailand	5	Semifinals
10.	/ South Africa	3	final
11.	Malta	2	Quarter finals
12.	Hong Kong	1	Semifinals
13.	New Zealand	1	Quarter finals
13.	Norway	1	Quarter finals
14th	Finland	1	1 round
14th	Iceland	1	1 round
14th	Belgium	1	1 round
14th	Cyprus	1	1 round

Participants from Germany, Austria and Switzerland

For a long time no snooker player from the DA-CH countries was able to qualify for the finals of the snooker world championship. The German professionals Lasse Münstermann (2001, 1st qualifying round) and Patrick Einsle (2007, 2nd qualifying round) and the young player Lukas Kleckers (2015, 2016, 2018 and 2019, each 1st qualifying round) failed in the early phase of qualification. The Swiss Alexander Ursenbacher also missed the qualification several times, but in 2017 only in the decisive round after a 4:10 against Yan Bingtao . He was the first DA-CH participant to qualify for three years.

swell

literature

• Clive Everton: Guinness Book of Snooker. Guinness Superlatives Limited, Middlesex 1982, ISBN 0-85112-256-6 .
• Chris Downer: Crucible Almanac (2011 edition). Bournemouth 2011.
• Hugo Kastner: Humboldt Snooker Guide: Players, Rules & Records. Humboldt Verlags GmbH, Baden-Baden 2006, ISBN 3-89994-098-9 .
• Geoffrey Kemp: Snooker's Crucible: How Sheffield Became the Snooker Capital of the World. Sheffield City Libraries, Sheffield 1988, ISBN 0-86321-079-1 .
• Luke Williams, Paul Gadsby: Masters of the Baize: Cue Legends, Bad Boys and Forgotten Men in Search of Snooker's Ultimate Prize. Mainstream Publishing, Edinburgh 2006, ISBN 1-84018-872-3 .

Web links

Wiktionary: Snooker World Championship  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Commons : Crucible Theater  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• World Snooker (official website of the World Snooker Federation)
• Global Snooker Center: Index ( Memento from January 24, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) (overview of all snooker world championships and final round results)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Note: The world rankings were introduced after the 1976 World Snooker Championship. It initially referred to the previous three world championships. The first world championship with an influence on the world rankings took place in 1974, even if the rankings did not even exist at that time. (see also section Influence on the world rankings )
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Chris Turner's Snooker Archive: World Professional Championship ( Memento from June 6, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
3. ^ Watson / Kemp: Snooker's Crucible. P. 24.
4. ↑ Calendar of events in the history of English Billiards and Snooker (November 29, 1926) on Snookergames.co.uk, accessed July 9, 2013
5. ^ Calendar of events in the history of English Billiards and Snooker (May 9-12, 1927) on Snookergames.co.uk, accessed July 12, 2013
6. ↑ Global Snooker Center: 1927 World Championship ( Memento from February 22, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
7. ^ World Championship Breaks Board. ( Memento of May 17, 2006 in the Internet Archive ). On: The GlobalSnookerCentre.co.uk. Retrieved April 23, 2012.
8. ↑ Global Snooker Center: 1928 World Championship ( Memento from February 22, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
9. ↑ Global Snooker Center: 1929 World Championship ( Memento from February 22, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
10. ↑ Global Snooker Center: 1930 World Championship ( Memento from February 22, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
11. ↑ Global Snooker Center: 1931 World Championship ( Memento from April 24, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
12. ↑ Kastner: Snooker: Players, Rules & Records. P. 31.
13. ↑ Global Snooker Center: 1936 World Championship ( Memento from February 22, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
14. ↑ Global Snooker Center: 1937 World Championship ( Memento from December 28, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
15. ↑ Global Snooker Center: 1938 World Championship ( Memento from February 22, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
16. ↑ Global Snooker Center: 1940 World Championship ( Memento from February 22, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
17. ^ Watson / Kemp: Snooker's Crucible. P. 46.
18. ↑ Global Snooker Center: 1947 World Championship ( Memento from January 16, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
19. ↑ Williams / Gadsby: Masters of the Baize. P. 47.
20. ↑ World Snooker: History , March 2, 2011
21. ^ Snooker.org: Hall of Fame.
22. ↑ Williams / Gadsby: Masters of the Baize. P. 48.
23. ↑ 1969 World Championship. ( Memento from January 16, 2014 in the Internet Archive ). On: Global-Snooker.com.
24. ↑ Global Snooker Center: 1971 World Championship ( Memento from December 28, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
25. ↑ Global Snooker Center: 1975 World Championship ( Memento from December 28, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
26. ↑ World Championship: Crucible will continue to host tournament. BBC Sport, January 18, 2015.
27. ^ Watson, Kemp: Snooker's Crucible. P. 74.
28. ^ Watson, Kemp: Snooker's Crucible. P. 74 ff.
29. ^ Watson, Kemp: Snooker's Crucible. P. 78.
30. ^ Watson, Kemp: Snooker's Crucible. P. 1.
31. ^ The Telegraph: World Snooker Championship 2011: Stephen Hendry exits - for the last time? April 25, 2011.
32. ↑ The Guardian: John Higgins seals fourth world title in poignant win over Judd Trump. May 3, 2011.
33. ↑ ^{a b} BBC: BBC extends snooker coverage deal for three more years. January 12, 2011.
34. ↑ Global Snooker Center: 1979 World Championship. ( Memento from December 28, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
35. ↑ ^{a b c d e} BBC: Crucible's top 10 moments. April 12, 2001.
36. ↑ Global Snooker Center: 1983 World Championship. ( Memento from March 6, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
37. ^ Youtube: "Cliff Thorburn, 147, World Championship, 1983".
38. ↑ BBC: 1985: The black ball final. April 18, 2003.
39. ↑ Kastner: Snooker: Players, Rules & Records. P. 33.
40. ↑ ^{a b c} Kastner: Snooker: Players, Rules & Records. P. 34.
41. ↑ Kastner: Snooker: Players, Rules & Records. P. 35.
42. ↑ Kastner: Snooker: Players, Rules & Records. P. 36.
43. ↑ Snooker World Championships 2014: Mark Selby beats Ronnie O'Sullivan 18-14 in the thrilling final. Jim White, The Telegraph, May 6, 2014.
44. ^ Betfred World Championship Postponed. WPBSA , March 20, 2020, accessed March 21, 2020 . 
45. ^ Embassy World Championship 1999: Qualifying. At: Snooker.org.
46. ↑ Eurosport: Snooker World Cup - World Cup: game and broadcast schedule. May 3, 2011.
47. ^ Downer: Crucible Almanac (2011 edition). Pp. 16-72.
48. ^ Downer: Crucible Almanac (2011 edition). P. 72.
49. ↑ ^{a b} Downer: Crucible Almanac (2011 edition). P. 134.
50. ↑ World Snooker: Rolling 147 Totals. September 28, 2011.
51. ↑ ^{a b} Everton: Guinness Book of Snooker. P. 5.
52. ^ Everton: Guinness Book of Snooker. P. 7.
53. ^ Everton: Guinness Book of Snooker. P. 8.
54. ^ The Telegraph: The top 10 runners-up in sport: Judd Trump proves that winning isn't always everything. May 3, 2011.
55. ↑ ^{a b} Maximum Snooker: World Championship 2011 - Best Snooker TV Ratings for 5 Years. May 4, 2011.
56. ↑ ^{a b} Sponsorship information. ( Memento from January 22, 2013 in the Internet Archive ). On: WorldSnooker.com.
57. ↑ sportalis: The 2011 Snooker World Cup in Sheffield. September 25, 2011.
58. ↑ tagblatt: A conversation with Eurosport commentator Rolf Kalb about the Snooker World Cup in Sheffield, England. April 16, 2011.
59. ^ Watson, Kemp: Snooker's Crucible. P. 3.
60. ↑ Eurosport: It couldn't be worse. August 6, 2008.
61. ↑ BBC: Huge financial blow hits snooker. August 6, 2008.
62. ↑ Eurosport: Betfred sponsors the World Cup. April 5, 2009.
63. ↑ World Snooker: Betfred.com Named Title Sponsor for the World Snooker Championship ( Memento of December 13, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) October 28, 2010.
64. ↑ Betfair Sponsor World Championship ( English ) In: worldsnooker.com . World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association . March 25, 2013. Archived from the original on April 2, 2013. Retrieved on March 28, 2013.
65. ↑ Dafabet To Sponsor World Championship ( English ) In: worldsnooker.com . World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association . March 19, 2014. Archived from the original on March 19, 2014. Retrieved on March 19, 2014.
66. ^ Downer: Crucible Almanac (2011 edition). P. 147.

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