The world has come to a standstill due to COVID-19 Pandemic and it’s cascading effect has paused the World’s major events like Olympic in Tokyo (postponed till 2021), ICC T20 World Cup ((postponed till 2021), Wimbledon (cancelled for 2020). One such event is the World Snooker Championship which was originally scheduled to be held from 18^th April 2020 to 4^th May’2020, which now begins with the qualifier round from the 21^st July to 28^th  July and the Main championship will start from 31st July 2020.

The qualification round includes 128 players from around the world, who will be competing for the 16 coveted spots in the Main Tournament. The qualifying round will be played at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield.

Snooker's World Championship at Sheffield's Crucible Theatre from July 31 to August 16 will allow a limited number of spectators after the government paved the way for fans to attend elite sports events on a trial basis.

Chairman of WPBSA, Berry Hearn assured fans that every health and safety guideline given by the government would be followed with the “eyes of the planet” focused on the event.

History of the World Snooker Championship

World Snooker Championship is one of the leading snooker tournaments known for the prestige and the prize money. The first World Snooker Championship was held in the year 1927 which was won by Joe Davis who was an English professional snooker and billiards player. He was a dominant name in snooker in the 1920s to 1950s. Joe Davis continually won 15 championships before retiring from the event undefeated after his 1946 success.

However, the game of snooker faced a period of decline in the 1950s and the championship was not hosted after 1952. Although unofficial championships still went on until 1957. In the year 1964, the event was revived again on a challenge basis and from the year 1969, the championship became official knock out event again.

Since 1977, the World Snooker Championship is being held at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. Currently, the championship is played over a period of 17 days and ends on the first Monday of May. The schedule of which now has been disturbed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Furthermore, in the modern era of snooker (which is considered since the year 1969), Stephen Hendry holds the record of the maximum title (7 times), followed by Steve Davis and Ray Reardon who won 6 championships and Ronnie o’ Sullivan who has won the title 5 times. The current champion is Judd Trump who won his first championship in the year 2019.

RKG Snooker in World Snooker Championship

RKG Snooker is one of the most prominent names in the world of snooker in India. It was the initiative of  Ravindra Kumar Gupta who launched the world-class Cue Sports dedicated website in India named www.rkgsnooker.com which provides updates and news of the Cue Sports from around the world including history of the week, player’s birthday articles, latest rankings, informative blogs about Cue Sports.

Mr. Gupta since the early age of sixteen has an intense desire for Cue Sports. He played the game with perfection and enthusiasm and he is promoting this game with the same zeal for the last four decades.

Due to his business acumen and administrative skills, he formed the Delhi Billiards & Snooker Association of Delhi and became its founder Vice – President in 1977 at the age of 29 years. He organised on behalf of the association, The World Amateur Billiards Championship, in 1981 which was a rip-roaring success & won by Michael Ferreira by trouncing Norman Dagley in a nerve-shattering final.

He Organized various big prize money International & National Tournaments for promoting the Cue Sports in India.

Ravindra Kumar Gupta has also published a unique book on Cue Sports in 2015 with the name "Cue Sports-Compendium" to create awareness of this game in young players and fans of this game by giving information about the legend and current champions of the game (from India & Aboard) who have taken the game to greater heights. Cue Sports-Compendium consists of articles, pictures of champions of the game. It also covers very interesting and little known games of Cue Sports like Carom Billiards, Cricket, Slosh, Shuffle Pool and Skittles. It also features a distinctive photo gallery of famous world personalities playing Cue Sports. Its second edition is available on Amazon and www.rkgpublishers.com

Mr Gupta has also sponsored many international (Shaun Murphy, Stuart Bingham, Ryan Day, Micheal White, Aditya Mehta and others) and national players (Laxman Rawat, Sandeep Gulati and others) under the banner of RKG Snooker to help them achieve greater heights.

RKG Snooker in the World Snooker Championship 2020

Michael White, the current member of RKG Snooker family is playing in match number 53 of qualifying in round 2 and Ryan Day (ex-member) in qualifying match number 68 of round 3.

Michael White is a very prominent member of the RKG Snooker with highest rank 15 in April 2015. He is a Welsh professional snooker player from Neath, Wales, United Kingdom. He began playing snooker at the age of 9 and became the youngest player to have made a century break in competitive play. Also, he became the World Ameature champion at the age of 14. White has won his only ranking event title in 2015, Indian Open.

Ryan Day is from Neath, Wales, the United Kingdom as well with the highest ranking of 6 in the year 2009/2010. He is a prolific break-builder and has compiled over 375-century breaks in his overall career till now. 

We at RKG Snooker will post daily news, analysis, match of the day and other such features on a daily basis of Qualifying and main Championship for the fans around the World at www.rkgsnooker.com and also at RKG Snooker Facebook Page.