History of the China Championship

It’s a relatively new tournament with £150,000 going to the winner. Played over the course of a few best-of-9’s, a best-of-11 in the semis and a standard best-of-19 in the final; can defending champion Mark Selby retain his China Championship trophy and also win his first ranking title since this event last year?

Based in Guangzhou (Southern China), the China Championship came to surface in 2016 as an invitational event with a £200,000 top prize however, it was always the intention to carry it forward as a ranking event. Built on the growing partnership between World Snooker and China, this tournament was also likely introduced to schedule closely with other events held in Asia to minimise long distance back-and-forth travel for the players.

The event received a small amount of backlash for the decision to convert it to a ranking tournament. A lot were pleased that there was an equivalent to the Masters held in China in terms of exclusivity and how lucrative it was. The tournament in its first iteration provided the most prize money for any event outside of the UK. Many were concerned that its change to ranking status involving a similar qualifying and durational format would make it too similar to other ranking events.

When the first China Championship was taking place, the players competing would consist of the Top 10 players based off general rankings and the Top 4 players outside this on the one-year ranking list. The last two were chosen by the CBSA (Chinese Billiards and Snooker Association). In this instance, they selected Marco Fu and Liang Wenbo.

Regardless, the prize money involved (which is the same as a Coral Cup event) hasn’t discouraged participation among the top players. Higgins pocketed the top prize in the inaugural edition, while Brecel won his first ranking tournament in the following year’s China Championship. The 2018 championship saw its closest match as Selby edged out Higgins in a final frame decider, pushing the finish after midnight.

It’s easy to predict one of the usual suspects taking it home this year but similar to other tournaments, players have to go through a qualifying match in order to make the main-64 draw. And this is where we sometimes see top seeds not making it through. Players like Bingham, Wenbo, Carter and Wilson are among those this year that didn’t get through qualifying stages. Nevertheless, this is something that is to be expected with the way events are structured nowadays.

What do you think of the China Championship? Which opening matches are you looking forward to? I think Fu vs Gilbert and Un-Nooh vs Yuelong will be stellar matches!

History of the Riga Masters

The first ranking event of the 2019/20 season is fast approaching and many players are looking to get their season off to a good start and set the standard for the rest of the snooker year. With his exemplary form last season, Neil Robertson is looking to be in a fine position to defend his title from last year.

Relatively speaking, the (Kaspersky) Riga Masters quite a young event having only been introduced in 2014. For the first 2 years, it was known as the ‘Riga Open’ and was run as a minor-ranking event. This meant that the points obtained by players in this event contributed to their ranking position but at a lower rate than a standard ranking event. It was in 2016 when the event was renamed and converted to a full ranking tournament.

Like most tournaments, the Riga Masters involves 128 players qualifying to compete in the tournament. The event consists of a series of best-of-7 or first to 4 matches all the way up until the semi-final and final where this ups (slightly) to a best-of -9 or first to 5. The winner of the Riga Masters is able to take home a cool £50,000 while second place earns £25,000.

The total prize fund for this year’s Riga Masters has increased from £259k to £278k (7%) where the extra funds have been allocated to a rise in the high break prize and for those in the Last-64 bracket.

The Riga Masters is a good tournament to view which players are ones to keep an eye on for the remainder of the season. However, it doesn’t tell us the story entirely considering that many players choose not to compete in this event.

Previous winners include Mark Selby, Barry Hawkins, Neil Robertson (twice) and Ryan Day. The Riga Masters is held in Latvia’s capital and then players are off to China to compete in the International Championship!

Brief history of The Crucible

Formerly, the World Snooker Championship didn’t really have a permanent place to call home for the tournament. Previously, the tournament (and all the equivalent names and formats for it) was held at locations scattered primarily throughout the UK. Locations involved London, Birmingham, Manchester, and Nottingham. The only exception to this was when Australia hosted the WSC in 1971 and 75.

The selection of The Crucible can be primarily attributed to the late Mike Watterson; or rather, his wife Carole Walker. Mike was a former snooker player himself, and not too bad either considering he was a top 64 resident in the rankings. However, the choice of The Crucible as the staging ground for the World Championship came from when Carole went to see a play at the arena and considered it fit to house the tournament. A few phone calls and a measuring tape later, the WSC has its new and improved venue.

The Crucible was opened in 1971, and as much as I like to imagine that its sole purpose is to house the World Championship every year; it actually hosts a variety of activities and performances throughout the year. The versatility of the venue as well as the ability to seat almost 1000 people within eye-shot of a snooker table must be chief among the reasons as to choosing Sheffield and The Crucible over other competing locations.

Sounds like smooth sailings from 1977 then, right? Well, considering it has been 42 years of The Crucible hosting the WSC annually, it hasn’t been the easiest ride. The Crucible has faced a lot of competition and criticism, mainly when it comes to whether the World Championship should continue to be held there. In 2005, Sheffield topped cities like Liverpool, Preston and Newcastle to remain as hosts of the WSC. Fast forward to the 40th anniversary where it was announced that The Crucible will retain host privileges until 2027.

So whenever discussions come up about changing the venue or potentially moving from Sheffield I always think, ‘Why?’ It’s been over 40 years with countless historical moments; like the black ball final and 5 mins 20 secs, just to name a couple. It’s already been long established as THE place for snooker’s biggest event. Sheffield’s economy has benefitted tremendously since 1977 because of WSC. So I say, why change?