 | |
| Tournament information | |
|---|---|
| Venue | Tianjin People's Stadium |
| Location | Tianjin |
| Country | China |
| Established | 2012 |
| Organisation(s) | World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association |
| Format | Ranking event |
| Total prize fund | £825,000 [1] |
| Recent edition | 2023 |
| Current champion |  Zhang Anda (CHN) |
The International Championship is a professional ranking snooker tournament. The reigning champion is Ding Junhui.
The event was introduced in the 2012/2013 season. It was named as the "first overseas 'major'", because the tournament had the same level of ranking points as the UK Championship. [2] With the change in the rankings system from points to prize money, the International Championship had the third highest prize fund and winner's cheque of any ranking event on the snooker calendar, behind the World and UK Championships, and the highest outside of the United Kingdom, until 2018 when the China Open had its winner's cheque raised to £225,000. [3] [4] [5] The 2012 edition ran from 28 October to 4 November in Chengdu, China, and it was won by Judd Trump, who defeated Neil Robertson 10–8 in the final. [6]
| Year | Winner | Runner-up | Final score [7] | Venue | City | Season |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 [6] |  Judd Trump (ENG) |  Neil Robertson (AUS) | 10–8 | Sichuan International Tennis Center | Chengdu, China | 2012/13 |
| 2013 [8] | Ding Junhui (CHN) |  Marco Fu (HKG) | 10–9 | Chengdu Eastern Music Park | 2013/14 | |
| 2014 [9] | Ricky Walden (ENG) |  Mark Allen (NIR) | 10–7 | Sichuan International Tennis Center | 2014/15 | |
| 2015 [10] |  John Higgins (SCO) | David Gilbert (ENG) | 10–5 | Baihu Media Broadcasting Centre | Daqing, China | 2015/16 |
| 2016 [11] | Mark Selby (ENG) | Ding Junhui (CHN) | 10–1 | 2016/17 | ||
| 2017 [12] | Mark Selby (ENG) | Mark Allen (NIR) | 10–7 | 2017/18 | ||
| 2018 [13] | Mark Allen (NIR) | Neil Robertson (AUS) | 10–5 | 2018/19 | ||
| 2019 [14] | Judd Trump (ENG) | Shaun Murphy (ENG) | 10–3 | 2019/20 | ||
| 2020–2022 | Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic | |||||
| 2023 [15] | Zhang Anda (CHN) | Tom Ford (ENG) | 10–6 | Tianjin People's Stadium | Tianjin, China | 2023/24 |
| 2024 [16] | Ding Junhui (CHN) | Chris Wakelin (ENG) | 10–7 | SNCNFC | Nanjing, China | 2024/25 |
The snooker world rankings are the official system of ranking professional snooker players to determine automatic qualification and seeding for tournaments on the World Snooker Tour. First introduced in the 1976–77 season, world rankings are maintained by the sport's governing body, the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. Each player's world ranking is based on their performances in designated ranking tournaments over the preceding two years. Until the 2009–10 season, rankings were updated once annually, following the World Snooker Championship. Since the 2010–11 season, rankings have been updated after every ranking tournament. The world rankings were formerly based on point tariffs set by the governing body, but this system transitioned to a prize money list for the 2014–15 season.
The UK Championship is a professional ranking snooker tournament. It is one of snooker's prestigious Triple Crown events, along with the World Championship and the Masters. It is usually held at the Barbican, York. Ronnie O'Sullivan has won the tournament a record eight times, followed by Steve Davis with six titles and Stephen Hendry with five. O'Sullivan is the reigning champion, winning his eighth title in 2023.
The World Open is a professional ranking snooker tournament. Throughout its history, the tournament has undergone numerous revamps and name changes. It started out in 1982 as the Professional Players Tournament, but for most of the 1980s and 1990s it was known as the Grand Prix. It was renamed the LG Cup from 2001 to 2003 before reverting to the Grand Prix until 2010. Since then it has been known as the World Open.
The China Open was a professional snooker tournament. It was one of a number of ranking tournaments and began in 1997. The final champion is Neil Robertson, who won the event in 2019.
Liang Wenbo is a Chinese former professional snooker player. During his playing career, he won one ranking title at the 2016 English Open, twice won the World Cup for China in 2011 and 2017 with teammate Ding Junhui, and was runner-up at the 2009 Shanghai Masters and the 2015 UK Championship. He made 292 century breaks in professional competition, including three maximum breaks, and reached a career high of 11th in the snooker world rankings.
The Triple Crown in professional snooker refers to winning the sport's three longest-running and most prestigious tournaments: the World Snooker Championship, the invitational Masters, and the UK Championship. In January 2020, the three tournaments were formally named the Triple Crown Series.
Luca Brecel is a Belgian professional snooker player. A four-time ranking event winner, Brecel is the former World Snooker Champion, having won the 2023 event by defeating four-time champion Mark Selby 18–15 in the final. Brecel trailed Si Jiahui 5–14 in the semi-final, but eventually won 17–15. This comeback from nine frames behind is the biggest deficit ever overturned in the history of the World Championship at the Crucible Theatre.
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The Players Tour Championship was a series of snooker tournaments comprising some minor-ranking events played in Europe, and an Asian leg comprising some minor-ranking events in Asia. The series concluded with a Grand Final, where qualification was based on performance in the other PTC events, and had the status of a full ranking tournament. Each regular event lasted for at least three days, with qualifying days for amateurs should the event be oversubscribed. Each event costs £100 to enter, and Main Tour players can gain ranking points in the events.
Championship League is a professional snooker tournament, devised by Matchroom Sport. The tournament was originally held at the Crondon Park Golf Club in Stock, Essex, from its debut in 2008 until 2016. From 2017 it has been held in Coventry, Barnsley, Milton Keynes and Leicester.
The 2012–13 snooker season was a series of snooker tournaments played between 16 May 2012 and 6 May 2013. The season featured two new ranking events: the Wuxi Classic and the International Championship. The tour had a record five ranking events in China, and three new PTC events in Asia. The tour also visited Bulgaria for the first time in its history, and returned to Poland, Belgium and Australia. Before the start of the season World Snooker requested every player to sign a players contract, that would allow players to choose which events they want to enter – no player was forced to play in any event. At the end of the season Mark Selby was named the World Snooker Player of the Year, the Snooker Writers' Player of the Year and the Fans' Player of the Year and Ian Burns the Rookie of the Year. Ronnie O'Sullivan received the "Performance of the Year" for winning his fifth World title after playing just one competitive match during the season. Jimmy Robertson's 57 break in just 130 seconds at the Snooker Shoot Out received the "Magic Moment of the Year" award. Terry Griffiths, Joe Johnson, Peter Ebdon, Ken Doherty, Graeme Dott, Shaun Murphy and Neil Robertson were inducted into the Hall of Fame.
The 2012 International Championship was a professional ranking snooker tournament that took place between 28 October and 4 November 2012 at the Sichuan International Tennis Center in Chengdu, China. It was the fourth ranking event of the 2012/2013 season. It was named as the "first overseas 'major'", as the tournament had the same level of ranking points as the UK Championship.
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The official 2015/2016 snooker world ranking points for the professional snooker players on the World Snooker Main Tour in the 2015–16 season are based on performances in ranking and minor-ranking in tournaments over a two-year rolling period. The rankings at the start of 2015/2016 season are determined by prize money earned in the 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 seasons and are updated after every tournament carrying ranking status. As points are accrued from tournaments throughout the current season, the points from the corresponding tournaments from two seasons earlier are dropped. If a player loses their first match in a tournament, then for the 2013/2014 season only, half the money earned for the event counts towards the player's ranking, and from the 2014/2015 season a player will not receive any points at all for that tournament.
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Active professional snooker tournaments | |
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| Ranking events |
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| Non-ranking events | |
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