Snooker world championship

Early years

Although snooker began to play snooker around the 1870s , its rules were officially approved by the Billiard Association & Control Club (later the Billiard Association & Control Council (BA & CC)) in 1919 . English billiards at that time was the dominant type of billiard games, and therefore ideas about organizing regional snooker tournaments appeared only in the early 1920s . Many professional players understood the potential of the game and insisted on holding the World Cup. In the end, Bill Kamkin , the owner of a network of billiard clubs in Birmingham , was directly involved in this. Together, Bill and his friend Joe Davis developed and proposed a plan for the BA & CC championship. Their proposal was accepted.

The first world championship was held from November 1926 to May 1927 in Birmingham , England . 10 players took part in it . The first match was played between Melbourne Inman and Tom Newman ^[3] , and the winner of the whole championship was the Englishman Joe Davis. He was one of the organizers of the tournament. For the victory, Davis received £ 6.10 (about three hundred pounds sterling at today's rates) ^[4] , and he bought the champion’s cup for his money. The highest break of the tournament made Albert Cope , 60 points.

In the next few years, the championship was transferred to different cities, but the host country remained the same. All the drawings, up to 1940, were won by Davis, moreover, in 1936 he made the first official registered century break . The only serious contender was his younger brother Fred , whom Joe won in the decisive frame in 1940.

In most cases, the format of the tournament at that time was the same: it was held according to the “Challenge” system, that is, the champion of one year automatically reached the final of the next, and the opponent was determined in a series of knockout matches.

From 1941 to 1945, the championship was not held due to the Second World War . It resumed only in 1946 , and Joe Davis became the winner again. He also owned the highest break of the championship in 136 points, which he made in the final match against Horace Lindrum . For this victory, the Englishman received £ 1000 . By that time, Davis had already become the 15-time world champion (all titles were won in a row), but after the 1946 championship he stopped participating in the tournament. After the departure of his older brother, Fred Davis was ready to continue the family tradition, however, his first attempt to win the title was unsuccessful. In the final match, he was stopped by Scot Walter Donaldson . However, the next 10 years in the championship was dominated by Davis Jr.: from 1948 to 1957, he won eight titles, while his main rival Donaldson was only one.

Decay

In 1952, a crisis began in the conduct of the world snooker championships. It began with a great disagreement between the players and the management organization, BA & CC . As a result, two championships were held: organized by the BA & CC and organized by the professional players themselves. In the first , only two snooker players took part, and the Australian Horez Lindrum became the winner; in the second all the other professionals played, and there Fred Davis was the champion. World Matchplay (as that tournament was officially called) and began to be considered the “real” world championship. However, he did not last long and in 1958 ceased to be held due to unpopularity and a catastrophic lack of money. The last World Matchplay champion was the Englishman John Palman , who won his title in 1957 .

1960s and 1970s

In 1964, the tournament was still revived in the Challenge format, largely due to the efforts of Rex Williams , who reached an agreement with BA & SS a year earlier. But the championships were held irregularly, sometimes several times a year, thanks to which Palmen won seven competitions in four years.

In 1969, the format of the World Cup changed, and the knockout system was adopted ^[5] . The first winner was John Spencer , but the next decade in the championship was ruled by another player, the Welshman Ray Reardon , who won six titles from 1970 to 1978 .

In 1974, the championship was included in the list of rating competitions, which is why its prestige increased. And in 1976 , the first major sponsor, the Embassy cigarette brand, remained with the tournament for almost thirty years, came to the championship. A year later, the championship found a new home, the Crucible Theater in Sheffield , and the BBC channel began broadcasting games ^[6] . 1977 can be considered the year of birth of modern snooker.

Modern snooker era

Since the early 1980s, it was decided to allow 32 players to participate in the tournament. At about the same time, in 1980 , the final number of frames for the final was approved: 35, a game with up to 18 victories.

Since 1997, a small change in the format was also introduced: the semifinals began to play not up to 16, but up to 17 won games.

In 1980, the world championship was first won by a non-European (Canadian Cliff Thorburn ). A year later, the title received a new player - Steve Davis (not a relative of Joe and Fred Davisam). He became the absolute leader, winning in the 1980s six top titles out of the eight finals he played. Not without the participation of Steve passed and the final of the World Cup 1985 , the most famous of all ever played in the history of Crucible ^[7] . Then Dennis Taylor won the Englishman 18:17, snatching victory on the last ball. This 35-frame bout, ending on 00-19 on Monday, held the record for the duration of a snooker match for a long time (890 minutes of net time).

Davis could dominate the championships and further, however, in the late 1980s an even more talented player appeared in the main tour (a kind of snooker major league) - Stephen Hendry . In those days, many experts began to call Hendry the successor to Davis ^[8] , because both one and the other already at the beginning of his career became almost invincible in all competitions. But in the end, the Scot left behind Steve on all counts, and above all on the main thing - the number of world championships won. The 90s belonged specifically to Stephen Hendry. He took his first title in a record 21 years and 106 days, and he won the last, seventh, title in 1999 . Stephen Hendry is considered to be the most successful player in the history of the tournament: despite the fact that by the number of world championships won, he occupies only the fourth place, his victories came at a time when snooker was already a fairly developed sport with high gaming competition.

However, at the very beginning of the XXI century, the potential of the new generation of snooker was revealed, which primarily included Ronnie O'Sullivan (England), John Higgins (Scotland) and Mark Williams (Wales). It was these three snooker players who won the main championship trophy eleven times for three: in 1998, 2000–2001, 2003–2004, 2007–2009, and 2011–2013. Of these, five titles won O'Sullivan, four Higgins and two Williams. It was O'Sullivan and Higgins who became full-fledged successors to Stephen Hendry and Steve Davis, winning together 9 world titles and also playing one of the finals between themselves (in 2001, won Ronnie 18:14). And if Hendry remained the greatest player of his time, as well as an unprecedented master of the past, Higgins and O'Sullivan opened a new era of snooker, in which the competition was already several times higher than in the 1990s . At some point, the question of the possibility of defending a world title at least some player had already ceased to be on the agenda, and from 2007 to 2011, world champions could not even reach the quarterfinals of the next World Cup. Only in 2013, having received not the heaviest tournament grid (as opposed to the previous one) and having shown a very strong game, Ronnie O'Sullivan managed to defend his world title.

Due to changes in UK legislation related to restrictions on tobacco advertising, manufacturing companies were prohibited from sponsoring sports competitions in the United Kingdom. But Embassy received special permission to continue sponsorship of the world championship until 2005 . The latest champion of the “Embassy Snooker World Championship” was the Englishman Sean Murphy , who won Matthew Stevens , 18:16. Murphy's victory was remembered not so much as the last one under the Embassy sponsorship, but rather because the winner himself won the title after leaving the qualifying rounds. It was only the second time in the history of the Crucible championship after Terry Griffiths won in 1979 .

During the 2005 tournament, the chairman of WPBSA announced that the championship would be held at the Crucible Theater for at least another five years, and the largest online casino network, 888.com, soon became its new sponsor - a 5-year contract was signed in January 2006 ^[9] . Many changes in the design of the championship were associated with the arrival of 888.com, for example, the traditionally red color of the Krusibla Arena was changed to green, and, as it was written above, players were forbidden to smoke or drink alcohol in the hall.

The first winner of the tournament under the new sponsor was the 28-year-old Scot Graham Dott , who beat Peter Ebdon in the dramatic finale, 18:14. Interestingly, Dott himself, although he was among the 16 strongest snooker players, was the least likely champion according to the bookmakers. But his victory clearly contributed to both the emotional exhaustion of the opponent in the semifinals, and his own, "defensive" style of play ^[10] . In the end, Graeme Dott received a £ 200,000 and a championship trophy in an updated design.

At the 2007 World Championships, the anniversary, 1000th Century Break in the history of Krusibla was made. The author of this achievement was John Higgins, he later became a champion. And the previous winner, Dott, already lost in the first round to a not very strong opponent - Ian McCulloh - 7:10. But to defend the title next year failed to Higgins: in the 2008 championship, he lost in the second round. This time, Ronnie O'Sullivan became the champion, winning the final of Alistair Carter , 18: 8 ^[11] .

In the tournaments of recent years, Neil Robertson should also be noted, who managed to interpose between three O'Sullivan titles and three Higgins titles in 2010, and also played in the semifinals before. Marked at the 2007 World Championships, Mark Selby reached the final, without being a member of the top 16. In 2011, the 21-year-old and very talented player Judd Trump reached the final, developing a phenomenal clutch. However, neither Selby's patience nor Trump's talent was enough to win the championship, both times John Higgins became the champion.

In 2012, Ali Carter was able to reach the second finals in his career, where he was again defeated by O'Sullivan. A year later, in 2013 , the gifted, though not very young Barry Hawkins , who had never been very bright before, reached the finals. On his way, he defeated the young Jack Lisowski , Mark Selby, Ding Junhui and the very strong Ricky Walden . In the final, he could not oppose anything to O'Sullivan and lost 12:18. However, Hawkins became the second player in the history of snooker, who managed to win Ronnie 12 frames in the final (after Higgins), as well as the only player in the 2013 Championship, who managed at least for some time in the match with Ronnie to go ahead in the long run (3 : 2).

The 2014 World Cup ended in victory for Mark Selby, who beat the current (at that time) world champion Ronnie O'Sullivan in the final. The first session was held in the style of O'Sullivan and ended with a score of 5-3 in favor of Ronnie. In the second session, Selby made up for lost time. In the third session, having won seven frames in a row, Selby stepped forward. The final ended with a score of 18-14. In the finals of 2016, Mark beat Dina Junhui with the same score.
At the 2017 World Championships, Mark Selby won for the third time, in the final, beating veteran John Higgins. Losing after the first two sessions with a score of 7-10, Selby made an impressive breakthrough in the third, winning 6 frames out of 7, resulting in an advantage to win the match with a score of 18-15.

After the 2008 World Cup, the main sponsor, 888.com, without fulfilling its contractual obligations, due to the crisis, ceased to sponsor it ^[12] . In 2009, Betfred.com became the main sponsor of the World Cup for the next four years. Thus, the main snooker tournament changed its official name to the “Betfred.com World Snooker Championship”. And the venue for the championship, according to the statement by the former WPBSA head, Sir Rodney Walker , is likely to remain the same until 2015 - the Crucible Theater in Sheffield ^[13] . At the end of the contract with Betfred, Betfair has become a sponsor since 2013.

Recently, the quality of the game has noticeably increased (both in snooker in general and at the World Championships in particular) - for comparison, there were only 18 hundredth series in the tournament in 1983 , and 83 in the championship in 2009. The 2019 World Cup figure is a record at the moment - 100 hundredth series.

For 83 years (with short breaks) of its history, the World Cup has been in 13 cities and in 3 countries (Great Britain (England), South African Republic, Australia). Among the most successful players, the British have been dominating both now and now, but recently participants from the traditionally “non-nucleus” countries have begun to appear. Since the early 1990s , representatives of England , Scotland , Wales , Northern Ireland , Ireland , China , Australia , New Zealand , South Africa , Canada , the Netherlands , Iceland , Norway , Finland , Thailand , Pakistan , Malta and Belgium have played in the final stage of the tournament.

Among the most successful non-British snooker players who have not yet completed their careers are Neil Robertson from Australia (winner of the 2010 World Cup), Dutchman Stephan Mazrotsis , who won the 1/8 finals at the 1997 World Cup , Ding Junhui and Liang Wenbo from China and Tony Drago from Malta .

Recently, periodically there is information that the World Cup can be transferred to China, but not earlier than the current contract with Sheffield Crucible will end. The desire to move the tournament to China is due to the high popularity of snooker in this country, as well as the possibility of attracting new major sponsors ^[14] .

For the whole history of the World Championships, only a few times have been played for more than one year. In general, the timing of this tournament has been established for quite some time - this is about the middle of April - the beginning of May. For example, the 2008 World Cup was held daily from April 19 to May 5 .

Qualifying matches

For a long time (until 2010) the qualification of the players of the main tour in the main part of the tournament was usually held in two stages. The first was played by snooker players, who occupy the lowest positions in the official rating. The first stage was conducted usually in winter, in the beginning-middle of January. The second qualification stage was held in the spring, two or three months before the start of the championship ^[15] . In 2010, two stages of qualification were decided to bring together in calendar terms and hold, with short breaks, in the period from February 26 to March 9. Starting from 2011, all qualification rounds were held daily, one after another, with a single one-day break, which was spent on the restoration of gaming tables.

The so-called pre-qualification, or qualification for players who are part of the WPBSA, but are not playing in the main tour, is also being conducted lately. It, depending on the number of participants, can consist of several stages, and allows former professionals (or other WPBSA members who are not playing on the tour) to get into the main qualification and fight further for getting into the final stage. Earlier, when there were significantly more snooker players on the main tour, instead, preliminary qualifications were held for ordinary amateur players.

Rating points at the World Championships have always been and remain the most valuable among all snooker tournaments. Although until 2005 the winners of the championship received 8000 points ^[16] , this was enough for them to dramatically improve or strengthen the position in the world rankings, since the points at most other competitions were twice as low. Often, it was a victory in the championship that brought snooker players with an insufficiently high rating the first place in the season. For example, in 1990, Stephen Hendry became the first precisely because of his victory in the championship, although he had lagged far behind Steve Davis before that.

Points are distributed between players in varying degrees depending on their position in the official ranking and tournament result. For example, players with a lower rating (out of the Top 16, that is, qualified) for losing 32 of the strongest rounds (1/16 finals) get more points than the Top 16 participants with the same result.

Rating points for 2012

• Winner: 10,000 points
• Finalist: 8000
• Semifinalists: 6400
• Quarter-finalists: 5000
• 1/8 final: 3800
• 1/16 finals: 1400/2800 (for "seeded" / for qualified)
• 5th round of the main qualification: 1150/2300
• 4th round of the main qualification: 900/1800
• 3rd round of core qualification: 650/1300
• 2nd round of main qualification: 400/800

Players who lose in the 1st round of the main qualification and players who are not members of the main tour are not awarded points.

The prize money at the World Snooker Championship appeared from the very first year of its holding and amounted to 6 pounds and 10 shillings . By 1946, the prize money had increased to £ 1,000 for the victory and the final, ^[17] and although translated into the current rate this amount increases several times, all this time there was clearly not enough money. The situation changed for the better in the early 1970s. when snooker tournaments began to be shown on television, and well-known sponsors became interested in the game (mainly advertising cigarettes and alcoholic beverages).

Although the World Cup was sponsored in 1969 , the material support of the tournament did not increase much, but the sponsors themselves changed over the next 10 years three times. The arrival in 1976 of the Embassy cigarette brand, which began to actively increase the prize fund, was crucial for the tournament. At the first World Championships, Embassy sponsored prizes in total were £ 15,300; the champion guaranteed himself £ 6,000. But by 1995, the fund was set at 578,250, and in the 2003 championship , a record prize money, only the winner received £ 270,000 . The total fund of the championship was 1,378,920 pounds. In addition, since the early 1990s, the players who made the maximum break also received a substantial reward in the amount of 157,000 to 167,000 pounds sterling (147,000 for the maximum and another 20,000 as for the highest break of the tournament); In 2011, this bonus was canceled, and in 2012, the system of "rolling jackpot" was introduced.

Prizes for 2012

• The total prize pool of the tournament is £ 1 111 000 + prizes for the maximum break
• Winner: £ 250,000
• Finalist: £ 125,000
• Semifinalists: £ 52,000
• Quarter-finalists: £ 24,050
• 1/8 final: £ 16,000
• 1/16 finals: £ 12,000
• 1/32 finals: £ 8,200
• 1/48 finals: £ 4,600
• Prize for the highest break in the main draw: £ 10,000
• The prize for the highest break in qualifying: £ 1 000

The format of the World Championships in the early stages of its development (1920-1960) was unstable and changed almost every time. Most snooker players played long, sometimes multi-day matches. The peak of such "marathon" draws came in the 1950s, when the finals played at least 50 wins. 1952 was a record year for this indicator - then Hoares Lindrum and Clark McConaki played a match of 143 frames. The victory in that final with a score of 94:49 was gained by Lindrum (for comparison, now the championship finals are played up to 18 victories).

However, in the 1970s, WPBSA (new snooker management organization) was forced to reduce the number of frames to win. This happened for a simple reason: snooker matches were broadcast on television , and the broadcast time was limited. So, since 1980, the maximum possible number of final games was reduced to 35. By the way, at about the same time, thanks to the arrival of new professional players, the tournament grid has expanded: now the main part of the championship matches start in the 1/16 final. The rest of the matches were played according to a well-developed system, which for almost 30 years has undergone minimal changes: 1/16 finals - matches to 10 victories, 1/8 finals - to 13 victories, 1/4 finals - to 13 victories and semi-finals - to 17 victories (until 1997 to 16 ^[18] ).

Player Seeding

By tradition, the first match of each new world championship opens the current winner. Accordingly, when sowing a tournament, he gets the first number regardless of what place he occupies in the official or preliminary rating. The second number is usually given to the player who occupies the first place in the official rating (if the current champion takes the first place, then the second number is sown number 2 in the rating). The distribution of seeding among the other 14 snooker players from the Top 16 is also made in accordance with the official rating. For example, at the 2010 tournament, the first seed number was received by the winner of the 2009 championship (that is, the previous champion) John Higgins (although at that time he was only the 4th ranking number). The second was the number in the ranking at that time in the ranking of Ronnie O'Sullivan. The third sowing number went to Stephen Maguire (2nd rating number).

It should also be noted that the distribution of "unseeded" (qualified) players to the first round of the final stage (1/16 final) is done by random draw, and their official rating does not play any role. For example, in the 1 / 16th of the same tournament of 2010, Higgins, being the first sown, played with the 17th rating number, and the 2nd sowing number (O'Sullivan) - with the 27th number.

2012 World Championship Format

• Preliminary qualification: matches up to 5 wins
• 1st round of the main qualification - 1/16 final: matches up to 10 wins
• 1/8 final: matches up to 13 wins
• 1/4 finals: matches up to 13 wins
• 1/2 finals: matches up to 17 wins
• Final: match up to 18 wins

By Championships

By players

By country

• Players whose names are highlighted in gray no longer appear on the main tour.

The main management organization of both the World Championship and the entire professional snooker is currently the World Association of Professional Billiards and Snooker (abbr. WPBSA). This organization is responsible for the preparation and conduct of the championship, in addition, its representatives are cooperating with sponsors and conclude contracts for the championship on various television channels ^[19] . WPBSA is headquartered in Bristol , England.

History

The initial development of snooker (and billiards in general) was the Billiards Association and the Supervisory Board / Club (BA & CC) . It was this organization that approved the rules of snooker and promoted the development of regional tournaments in the early 20th century. Under its management, the World Snooker Championships from 1927 to 1952 inclusively took place, while disagreements between professional players and representatives of BA & CC did not lead to a break in cooperation for almost 10 years. However, in 1964, the association of billiards and snooker, in agreement with Rex Williams, resumed the World Championship in the Challenge format. Finally, BA & CC ceased to manage the World Cup and snooker in general in the early 1970s, when it ceased to exist in its previous form and was replaced by WPBSA. Since then, the world championship is under the control of the World Billiards and Snooker Association.

The most developed snooker in the UK, there are also the main sources of information about the World Cup. Since the 1960s, the championship began to be shown on television ( BBC channels, ITV ). Now the World Cup is covered in full by the BBC and Eurosport channels, as well as the Guardian and BBC Sport newspapers. The tournament is the main snooker event of the season, and, accordingly, the most popular competition for this game on television - for example, at the 1985 World Cup finals, which was broadcast on BBC 2, more than 18 million viewers watched ^[7] .

The most famous commentators covering the tournament at different times were Ted Low ^[20] , Clive Everton (who at one time combined the careers of a commentator and a journalist) ^[21] and Jack Carnem ^[22] ; Also well-known in the past snooker players are often invited to comment on the championship matches ^[21] . In the Russian mass media, the world championship, as well as snooker in general, is gaining popularity. The first snooker commentators on the Russian-language Eurosport channel were Nikolay Sarayev and his assistant Alexander Eliseikin , currently the main commentators are Vladimir Sinitsyn , Artyom Baranov and Artyom Romanov.

• The most titled player in the entire history of the World Cup is still Joe Davis : from 1927 to 1946, he won the championship 15 times in a row. And the most successful snooker player of the modern era is formally Stephen Hendry , who won in Krusible 7 times. In general, it is customary to single out the top four most successful players in modern snooker: Stephen Hendry, Steve Davis, Ronnie O'Sullivan and John Higgins (primarily due to the different levels of competition and different levels of difficulty of tournaments in general at different times).
• The championship of 2007 is known for the longest frame in the entire history of the tournament. It lasted 1 hour and 17 minutes and was played in the final between John Higgins and Mark Selby .
• In 2012, Luca Bresel became the youngest participant in the World Championships at the age of 17 years and 35 days. He also became the youngest player to make a century break in the World Cup (116 points).
• The youngest championship winner was Stephen Hendry, who won it in 1990 at the age of 21. The second on this indicator is Shawn Murphy , the third - Alex Higgins . Both of them won the championship in 22 years, but with a difference of several months ^{[23] [24]} . And the oldest winner of the championship was Ray Reardon , who won the tournament in 45 years and 203 days ( 1978 World Championship ). But even more impressive is the age of the finalist of the 1966 tournament, Fred Davis - 53 years old.
• In 2008, Hendry crossed the milestone in the 1,000 games played against Ding Junh.
• Stephen Hendry is also a player in the modern era of snooker who held the world title for the longest. He was the reigning champion from 1992 to 1996.
• The most unexpected champion is Terry Griffiths ( 1979 ), who won the tournament as a player from qualifying; In addition, the championship was only the second professional tournament in which he played. Joe Johnson became the champion in 1986 , although the bets on him before the tournament began were taken as 150-1; Sean Murphy in 2005 repeated the Griffiths achievement and won the title, leaving the qualifying rounds.
• Jimmy White reached the finals of the world championship six times (in 1984 and 1990-1994), however, he never won it. He played the last final with Hendry and lost to him, 17:18.
• The so-called Crucible Curse is that no champion who won for the first time in this arena can defend his title next year. John Spencer , Terry Griffiths, Steve Davis, Dennis Taylor, Graham Dott and Neil Robertson lost in the first round, others passed on. Joe Johnson and Ken Doherty , who won the championship in 1986 and 1997, respectively, and the next year reached the final, came closest. But they eventually gave way to their rivals.
• Eight snooker players have managed to defend their title at least once in their careers: Joe Davis , Fred Davis, John Palman, Ray Reardon, Steve Davis, Stephen Hendry, Ronnie O'Sullivan, Mark Selby. At the same time, Steve Davis managed to defend his title three times, Hendry - four times.
• Ken Doherty - the only one who submitted three different versions of the World Cup. At various times, he won the junior, amateur and professional championships ^[25] .
• Ronnie O'Sullivan - the only player who managed to win all kinds of championship cups in the modern era of snooker. He has won a cup decorated with the following sponsors: Embassy, ​​888.com, Betfred.com and Betfair.com. John Higgins managed to win three types of cups, except the last (Betfair)
• John Parrott is the only one who managed to beat his rival dry in the final stage of the tournament: it happened in the first round match of the 1991 World Championships against Eddie Charlton . In qualifications, a dry score was rare. In 2012, two matches ended with a score of 10: 0.
• Horace Lindrum and Neil Robertson (Australia), Cliff Thorburn (Canada) and Ken Doherty (Ireland) are the only world champions living (or living) not in the UK . At the same time, the Lindrum title today is often not recognized due to the participation of just two players in the championship.
• The world championships of 1931 and 1952 are interesting because only 2 players took part in each of them.
• The longest non- final World Cup match was recorded in 1983 in the 1/8 final between Cliff Torburn and Terry Griffiths ^[26] . It ended at 03–51 in the morning, and Torburn won with a score of 13:12. He, as mentioned above, made in this match 147.
• The fastest match to 13 victories in the world championship was recorded in 1997 . Ronnie O'Sullivan then beat Tony Drago , 13: 4. It is worth noting that these players have the nicknames “Rocket” and “Tornado”, respectively, since they are known as the fastest in the history of the game.
• Of the most famous comebacks (a match where one player, while losing to another a lot of frames, wins the match in the end), there are several matches:

World Cup 1985, Dennis Taylor - Steve Davis. With the score 0: 8, Taylor won the match, 18:17, becoming the champion;

World Cup 1992, Stephen Hendry - Jimmy White. With the score of 8:14, Hendry won the match, 18:14, becoming the champion;

World Cup 1995, Nigel Bond - Cliff Torburn. With the score 2: 9, Bond won the match, 10: 9 ^[27] ;

2003 World Cup, Ken Doherty - Paul Hunter . With the score 9:15, Doherty won the match, 17:16, and made it into the final ^[28] ;

World Cup 2007, Sean Murphy - Matthew Stevens . With a score of 5:11 and then 7:12, Murphy won the match, 13:12 ^[29] ;

2010 World Cup, Neil Robertson - Martin Gould . With a score of 5:11, Robertson saved the match by winning it with a score of 13:12, and then became a world champion. ^[thirty]

• Stephen Hendry is a snooker player who earned the most prize money in a separate world championship ( £ 190,000 for a win and £ 163,000 for the highest break of 147 points, 1995) ^[31] .

Century breaks and highs

• The first maximum break in the championship was registered in 1983. The author of this achievement was the Canadian player Cliff Thorburn , who later reached the final. The break was made on stage 1/8 finals.
• In the entire history of the world championships, ten maximum breaks were made, but only one - in qualifying rounds ( Robert Milkins , March 14, 2006).
• Ronnie O'Sullivan and Stephen Hendry divide the record for the maximum series in a tournament. O'Sullivan made his first 147 in 1997 in 5 minutes and 20 seconds (the fastest maximum in professional snooker history). In 2003, he repeated this series in the first round match against Marco Fu , but eventually lost to 6:10. For the third time, O'Sullivan made the maximum at the 2008 World Championships in the 1/8 final against Mark Williams , and in the last frame. Stephen Hendry made his first high in the 1995 semi-final against Jimmy White; the second - in the quarterfinals of the 2009 World Cup and the third - in the 1/16 finals in 2012 . In addition to these two players, Jimmy White ( 1992 ), Mark Williams ( 2005 ), Cliff Thorburn ( 1983 ) and Alistair Carter ( 2008 ) ^[32] have maximum breaks in the final stages of the World Cup.
• Most of the century-breaks at one world championships were made by Stephen Hendry ( 2002 , 16 hundredth series).
• The only snooker player who managed to make a century break in his debut match at the World Championships is the Irishman Fergal O'Brien . He did it in 1994 .
• Ronnie O'Sullivan in 2013 became the champion in the total number of hundreds of series made at all world championships by one player. His current record is 131 episodes.
• The 2008 World Snooker Championship is the first and so far the only official tournament in which (in the main stage) two maxima were made: one for Ronnie O'Sullivan , the other for Alistair Carter ^[33] . As a result, prizes for this achievement were divided equally between them.
• Since the early 1990s, large bonuses for maximum breaks have been introduced. The first player who received a large bonus was Jimmy White in 1992 (100 thousand for a maximum and 14 thousand for the highest break). The biggest prize for the maximum was received by Ronnie O'Sullivan in 2003 - 169 thousand pounds (on average, O'Sullivan earned 433 pounds per second) ^[34]
• Since 2013, instead of large sums for the highest and maximum breaks, the “Golden cue” award is introduced in addition to the general formula for the cost of maximum breaks for knurled (for each season maximum, the cost of the next increases by 5000 pounds). In 2013, Golden Cue and 30,000 pounds won Neil Robertson with a series of 143 points.

Statistics and highlights of the final matches

• The most devastating score at the world championships was recorded in 1989 , when Steve Davis defeated John Parrott , 18: 3. Other major victories were at the 1993 World Cup (18: 5, Stephen Hendry - Jimmy White ), 1983 World Cup (18: 6, Steve Davis - Cliff Thorburn ) and 1965 World Cup (39:12, John Palmen - Fred van Rensburg ) .
• Steve Davis holds the record for the number of losing games in the championship on the way to the title. In 1989, he lost only 23 games to all opponents in all matches, second place for Hendry - 25 lost games in 1993.
• Only three times (2002, 1994, 1985) the final of the World Cup ended in a decisive game. In 1985, the game itself ended on a black ball.
• The longest finals to 18 wins are the World Cup finals 1985, World Cup 2006 and World Cup 2007. All three matches ended after midnight.
• The largest score was recorded at the 1952 World Cup, when Horez Lindrum defeated Clark McConaki 94:49.
• Victories in the decisive game at the world championships were recorded 6 times. For the first time the final, where all possible games were played, was held in 1940 . The last time this happened in 2002 . That final frame was very tense and was remembered by the numerous mistakes of both rivals ^[35] .
• The final, where both players represented the same country, but not England, was held in 2000 between Welsh Mark Williams and Matthew Stevens .
• The 1985 final between Steve Davis and Dennis Taylor was recognized as the most memorable and tense. That match started as Davis dictated, and he led 8-0. Then Taylor scored 11:11, and with the score 17:17 he made several outstanding hits, thanks to which he won the championship. The score in the last frame was 66:62 in favor of Taylor ^[36] .

• Snooker world championship
• Women's World Snooker Championship
• Snooker world championship among veterans
• Curse of the Crucible

• History of the World Cup on Top-Snooker (rus.)
• Global Snooker Championship History (Eng.)
• All data and statistics for the 2010 World Cup on Global Snooker (eng.)
• Video clips of the world championships on Youtube (English)
• Some information about the history of the World Cup at World Snooker (eng.)
• The entire list of records and tournament statistics in the Snooker Archive by Chris Turner (eng.)
• Snooker Archive by Chris Turner (eng.)

• Finals of the most famous world championships (1985, Dennis Taylor - Steve Davis) - video
• The fastest maximum break performed by Ronnie O'Sullivan - video
• The decisive game of the 1994 World Cup, Stephen Hendry - Jimmy White - video
• The first maximum break at the World Championships by Cliff Torburn - video
• Alex Higgins breaks 69 points in the 1982 championship - video

[[Category: Snooker World Championship |]]