This Wiki is not meant to replicate the excellent content that already exists in other places such as Wikipedia. Thus the entries are deliberately short and point to other relevant resources that are very well written and maintained.
Useful Sites
World Snooker Tour official website: news, draws, live scores, tickets
Wikipedia: general knowledge, biographies, history, statistics
Snooker.org: scores, draws, statistics
CueTracker: scores, statistics
What Is Snooker?
Snooker is a type of cue sport, played on a 12-by-6 foot table with six pockets and 22 colored balls, including a cue ball. It originated in India in the late 19th century as a hybrid game of two billiards variants, played by British Army Officers. Sir Neville Chamberlain is widely accepted to have been the inventor and the first to codify the rules.
Snooker is one of the hardest games/sports in the world, requiring immense skill and concentration.
Rules and Glossary
See the Rules of snooker page on Wikipedia for a concise explanation of the rules, including some of the most frequently asked about items such as foul, foul and a miss, and free ball. The official rule book from the governing body WPBSA can be found here: PDF.
In non-professional matches the miss rule is often omitted, as it was intended to prevent professional players from deliberately fouling to gain an advantage, and would make the game unnecessarily difficult at lower skill levels.
As WPBSA members, professional players must also adhere to its rules on member conduct, to maintain good standing of the governing body.
If you've heard some weird terminologies in commentary that you don't understand, check out the Glossary of cue sports terms page on Wikipedia.
How to Watch Tournaments
See the How to Watch page.
Professional Snooker
The governing body of the professional sport is the World Professional Snooker and Billiards Association (WPBSA, see official website and Wikipedia). The World Snooker Tour (WST), made up of about 128 players, is the main professional snooker tour. It is administered by the eponymous organization, World Snooker Limited, also referred to as "WST" (official website).
See this section on Wikipedia for details on how professional players gain their place on the tour, also known as a "tour card".
Tournaments and Ranking System
The Snooker Season (Calendar)
Each season of the World Snooker Tour begins in late June or early July, usually with the ranking Championship League as the season opener, followed by the invitational [Shanghai Masters](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Masters_(snooker)). The season always end with the World Championship in early May.
You can follow the snooker calendar using the useful sites mentioned above.
For the current 2025-26 season, see: snooker.org / Wikipedia / WST official website
Snooker.org and Wikipedia both have extensive records on historical snooker seasons and tournaments going back decades.
Ranking System
The players on the professional tour are ranked based on a rolling two-year ranking system. Players accumulate ranking points based on prize money earned in ranking tournaments. The rankings are calculated at designated intervals throughout the season, where points from latest tournaments are added, and those earned from events two years prior are removed.
The rankings determine players' seedings in tournaments. The defending champion of each tournament is usually seeded first, with the reigning World Champion seeded second, and the rest based on players' rankings.
There are also non-ranking events on the calendar, which are usually invitational events not open to the full 128-player circuit and thus are not granted ranking status.
Current Tournaments
The crown jewel in the snooker calendar is the World Championship. It was first held in 1927, and has been staged annually at the iconic Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England at the end of each season since 1977.
The World Championship, the invitational [Masters](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masters_(snooker)) (held since 1975), and the UK Championship (held since 1977) are named snooker's [Triple Crown Series](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_Crown_(snooker)). Also referred to as the "BBC events" due to the BBC being their host broadcaster, they are three of the sport's longest-running and most prestigious events. A recent addition to the calendar is the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters. Featuring the second-highest total prize fund, second only to the World Championship, it was branded as snooker's "fourth major".
The three Players Series tournaments — the [World Grand Prix](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Grand_Prix_(snooker)), the [Players Championship](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Players_Championship_(snooker)), and the [Tour Championship](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tour_Championship_(snooker)) — are an increasingly important part of the calendar. The three highly-competitive tournaments feature decreasing field of top players, from 32, to 16, to 12, respectively, based on the ranking points the players have earned in a single season.
The [Champion of Champions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champion_of_Champions_(snooker)) is a prestigious invitational event featuring all the tournament winners from the last year.
Several of the tour's most lucrative events are held in China. The invitational Shanghai Masters is usually held at the beginning of the season, with a format and prize fund comparable to the Masters. Ranking events include the Xi'an Grand Prix, [Wuhan Open](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuhan_Open_(snooker)), International Championship, and the [World Open](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Open_(snooker)).
The UK-based "Home Nations Series" consists of, as the name suggests, the [English Open](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Open_(snooker)), the [Northern Ireland Open](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Ireland_Open_(snooker)), the [Scottish Open](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_Open_(snooker)), and the [Welsh Open](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_Open_(snooker)). They have been the bread-and-butter of the tour since 2016.
The [British Open](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Open_(snooker)) has a history going back to 1980. It has a unique FA-cup style random draw at each round.
The German Masters was established in 1995, and held in the iconic Tempodrom in Berlin, Germany since 2011.
There are also the league-format Championship League events, the invitational Riyadh Season Championship with a special "golden ball", and the single-frame Snooker Shoot Out.
Others and Historical Tournaments
The [European Masters](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Masters_(snooker)) had been held in mainland Europe since 1989, but were absent for the last two seasons. It's unclear if it will return to the 2025-26 season calendar.
Some of the notable tournaments that are no longer held include: Pot Black, Irish Masters, [Classic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classic_(snooker)), Premier League Snooker, [China Open](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Open_(snooker)), Paul Hunter Classic, and the Players Tour Championship ("PTC" events).
See a full list on Wikipedia: List of snooker tournaments
Amateur Snooker
In collaboration with the WPBSA, the World Snooker Federation (WSF, see official website and Wikipedia is the governing body responsible for the promotion of snooker worldwide.
The IBSF World Snooker Championship, hosted by the International Billiards and Snooker Federation (IBSF, see official website and Wikipedia), was the premier amateur tournament until 2017, when the WPBSA terminated its relationship with the IBSF and formed the WSF. The annual WSF Championship has been staged since then, in which the winner of both the open and under-21 age groups will earn a two-year tour card to the main professional tour.
Several tournaments hosted by the governing bodies at the continental level also offer tour cards for the winners:
EBSA European Snooker Championship, organized by the EBSA (official website)
APSBF Asia Pacific Snooker Championship, organized by the APSBF (official website)
PABSA Americas Snooker Championship, organized by the PABSA (official website)
ABSF African Snooker Championship, organized by the ABSF (official website)
There are also various national amateur championships, for example:
UK and Ireland: England (the oldest and longest-running snooker tournament in the world, established in 1916), Northern Ireland, Scotland, [Wales](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_Amateur_Championship_(snooker)), [Ireland](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Amateur_Championship_(snooker))
Europe: Austria, [Belgium](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgian_Amateur_Championship_(snooker)), Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, [Germany](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Amateur_Championship_(snooker)), Hungary, Iceland, [Italy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_Amateur_Championship_(snooker)), Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, [Netherlands](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_Amateur_Championship_(snooker)), Norway, [Poland](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_Amateur_Championship_(snooker)), Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey
China: CBSA Tour
Asia and Oceania: Australia, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore
Americas: [Canada](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Amateur_Championship_(snooker)), United States
Africa: South Africa
Youth
Other
Media
YouTube
World Snooker Tour Official: highlights and interviews
TNT Sports Snooker: highlights and interviews
Stephen Hendry's Cue Tips: snooker chat and challenges with guests, hosted by Stephen Hendry
Shaun Murphy Snooker: coaching tips and analysis, hosted by Shaun Murphy
Break from Life: recreation of best shots from tournaments, coaching tips
Barry Stark Snooker Coach: tips from renowned coach Barry Stark
Cesar Muroya: edited highlights from iconic matches
Podcasts
WST Official Podcast Snooker Club by Stephen Hendry and Mark Watson: Spotify, Apple
Talking Snooker by Phil Haigh and Nick Metcalfe: Spotify, Apple
Onefourseven by Shaun Murphy and Phil Seymour: Spotify, Apple