Information on the 2026 World Snooker Championship including the full draw and latest results

The final stages of the 2026 World Snooker Championship take place between Saturday 18th April to Monday 4th May at the iconic Crucible Theatre in Sheffield.

Snooker’s blue riband event, the Championship was first won by Joe Davis in 1927. Since 1977, the Crucible has been home to the annual spectacular, and the venue will remain as host until at least 2045 following a recent big announcement securing its future.

Zhao Xintong is the reigning and defending world champion. The Chinese ace - who is this year’s favourite for the trophy - became the first Asian winner of the competition in 2025.

The World Championship is the final event of the 2025/26 professional snooker season.

How does the draw work?

A total of 144 contestants started out in this year’s tournament, but only 32 of these feature in the main draw at the Crucible.

The English Institute of Sport elsewhere in Sheffield held the qualifying rounds for the Championship, with 16 players emerging with golden tickets for the televised stages a few days later.

These qualifiers join the world’s top 16 ranked stars - who are the seeds and didn’t have to attend the preliminaries - at the Crucible, with these two pools of players randomly draw against each other for round one proper.

In terms of seeding positions, the defending world champion is always number one. The remaining seeding positions are then determined by the current world rankings.

The seeds are fixed into the draw bracket with number one at the top, and number two at the bottom. If all the seeds win their first match, the second round would be number 1 seed v number 16 seed, 2 v 15, 3 v 14 etc.

Full qualifying results can be found here.

What is the format and tournament schedule?

The World Snooker Championship is the longest and most gruelling green baize test on the professional circuit. The main draw stages at the Crucible last 17 days, but if you also include the qualifiers, the competition takes nearly a month to complete.

All matches throughout the event are multi-session affairs, including the preliminaries.

Two tables are in operation at the Crucible for the first and second rounds, and the quarter-finals, before the arena is transformed into a one-table set-up for the semi-finals.

Round one matches are the best of 19 frames played across two scheduled sessions. Match lengths then increase, with round two and quarter-final fixtures being the best of 25 frames across three sessions.

The semi-finals are the best of 33, and the two-day final is the best of 35 - all these matches are over four sessions.

The tournament schedule at the Crucible is below (rounds one and two overlap):

• Round One: Saturday 18th April to Thursday 23rd April
• Round Two: Thursday 23rd April to Monday 27th April
• Quarter-Finals: Tuesday 28th April & Wednesday 29th April
• Semi-Finals: Thursday 30th April to Saturday 2nd May
• Final: Sunday 3rd May & Monday 4th May

What is the prize money, and how much does the winner get?

The World Snooker Championship is the richest tournament in the sport with a regular prize fund of over £2.3million.

There is a winner’s purse of £500,000, and everyone at the Crucible is on at least a £20,000 payday.

Prize money breakdown for the 2026 World Snooker Championship:

• Champion: £500,000
• Runner-up: £200,000
• Losing semi-finalists: £100,000 (each)
• Losing quarter-finalists: £50,000 (each)
• Losers in the last 16: £30,000 (each)
• Losers in the last 32: £20,000 (each) - opening round at the Crucible
• Losers in the last 48: £15,000 (each) - final qualifying round
• Losers in the last 80: £10,000 (each)
• Losers in the last 112: £5,000 (each)
• Highest tournament break: £15,000

Chang Bingyu currently holds the highest break for his maximum 147 in qualifying, a feat that earned him a £147,000 bonus. Details on that here.

Where to watch the 2026 World Snooker Championship on TV and online:

UK: BBC, BBC iPlayer and BBC Sport website. For details of coverage click here

UK & Ireland: TNT Sports and discovery+ (UK) and HBO Max (Ireland)

Mainland Europe: Eurosport* and locally relevant streaming platforms (discovery+ in Germany, Italy and Austria and HBO Max in all other markets).

China: CCTV5, Huya.com, Migu, CBSA-WPBSA Academy WeChat Channel (pay-per-view), CBSA-WPBSA Academy Douyin

Macau China: CCTV5

Hong Kong China: Now TV

Taiwan: Sportcast

Thailand: True Sport

Mongolia: N Sports

Philippines: Tap

Malaysia and Brunei: Astro SuperSport

New Zealand: Sky Sport NZ

Vietnam: VTVCab

Indonesia: Sportstars/Vision+

All other territories: WST

* Eurosport is available in: Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lebanon, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Morocco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vatican State