The IBSF World Snooker Championship (also known as the World Amateur Snooker Championship) is the premier non-professional

snooker Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sport played on a rectangular table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six pockets, one at each corner and one in the middle of each long side. First played by British Army officers stationed in Ind ...

tournament in the world. The event series is sanctioned by the

International Billiards and Snooker Federation The International Billiards & Snooker Federation (IBSF) is an organisation that governs non-professional snooker and English billiards around the world. As of January 2020, the organisation is headquartered in Doha, Qatar. History The World Bil ...

. A number of IBSF champions have gone on to successful careers in the Pro ranks, notably

Jimmy White James Warren White (born 2 May 1962) is an English professional snooker player who has won three seniors World titles. Nicknamed "The Whirlwind" because of his fluid, attacking style of play, White is the 1980 World Amateur Champion, 2009 ...

(1980),

James Wattana James Wattana (; born January 17, 1970, as วัฒนา ภู่โอบอ้อม ''Wattana Pu-Ob-Orm'', then renamed รัชพล ภู่โอบอ้อม ''Ratchapol Pu-Ob-Orm'' in 2003) is a Thai former professional snooker pl ...

(1988),

Ken Doherty Ken Doherty (born 17 September 1969) is an Irish professional snooker player, commentator and radio presenter. As an amateur, Doherty won the Irish Amateur Championship twice, the World Under-21 Amateur Championship and the World Amateur C ...

(1989),

Stuart Bingham Stuart Bingham (born 21 May 1976) is an English professional snooker player who is a former world and Masters champion. Bingham won the 1996 World Amateur Championship but enjoyed little sustained success in the early part of his professional ...

(

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 800, causing the plane to crash and killing everyone on b ...

Marco Fu Marco Fu Ka-chun, MH, JP (, born 8 January 1978) is a Hong Kong professional snooker player. He is a three-time ranking event winner, having won the 2007 Grand Prix, the 2013 Australian Goldfields Open and the 2016 Scottish Open. He ...

(1997),

Stephen Maguire Stephen Maguire (born 13 March 1981) is a Scottish professional snooker player. He has won six major ranking tournaments, including the 2004 UK Championship, and has twice since reached the finals of that event. Maguire turned professional in ...

(2000) and Mark Allen (2004). Both Ken Doherty (in

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

) and Stuart Bingham (in

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the April ...

) have gone on to win the professional

World Snooker Championship The World Snooker Championship is the longest-running and most prestigious tournament in professional snooker. It is also the wealthiest, with total prize money in 2022 of £2,395,000, including £500,000 for the winner. First held in 1927, it ...

History

The IBSF World Snooker Championship tournament was first held in 1963. In the first two tournaments, the title was decided alone on group stages. From 1968 until now, the group stage was followed by a

knock-out stage A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, muay thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving strikin ...

. The tournament has been held annually since 1984. However, 2005 IBSF World Snooker Championship was cancelled, due to an earthquake in Pakistan where the event was due to be held. Instead in February/March 2006, a new tournament with the name IBSF World Grand Prix was held in

Prestatyn Prestatyn is a seaside town and community in Denbighshire, Wales. Historically a part of Flintshire, it is located on the Irish Sea coast, to the east of Rhyl. Prestatyn has a population of 19,085, History Prehistory There is evidence that ...

, Wales as the qualification for a place on 2006/2007 World Snooker Main Tour, although the winner wasn't called World Champion. In 2007 an all-Thailand final saw

Atthasit Mahitthi Atthasit Mahitthi ( th, อรรถสิทธิ์ มหิทธิ) (born 13 September 1978) is a former professional Thai snooker player. Mahitthi reached the semi-final at the 2006 IBSF World Amateur Championship in Amman, Jordan, wh ...

defeat Passakorn Suwannawat 11–7. At the 2008 championship in

Wels Wels (; Central Bavarian: ''Wös'') is a city in Upper Austria, on the Traun River near Linz. It is the county seat of Wels-Land, and with a population of approximately 60,000, the eighth largest city in Austria. Geography Wels is in the ...

, Austria,

Thepchaiya Un-Nooh Thepchaiya Un-Nooh (, ; born 18 April 1985) is a Thai professional snooker player. He has won one ranking event, the 2019 Snooker Shoot Out, and finished as runner-up in the 2019 World Open. He is regarded as one of the fastest snooker player ...

of Thailand defeated Ireland's Colm Gilcreest 11–7. The 2009 event was held in

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part ...

, India, and won by Alfie Burden of England, 10–8 against Igor Figueiredo of Brazil. The 2010 event was held in Damascus, Syria, and won by Dechawat Poomjaeng of Thailand, defeating India's Pankaj Advani. The 2011 Championship was held from November 28 to December 3 in

Bangalore Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...

, India. The final was won by 17-year-old Iranian

Hossein Vafaei Hossein Vafaei ( fa, حسین وفایی ایوری; born 15 October 1994) is an Iranian professional snooker player. He is the first professional player from Iran. He won his first professional title at the 2022 Snooker Shoot Out, beating Mar ...

, defeating Lee Walker of Wales 10–9. In 2014, fourteen-year-old

Yan Bingtao Yan Bingtao (, born 16 February 2000) is a Chinese professional snooker player. He is the youngest player to win the Amateur World Snooker Championship after defeating Muhammad Sajjad 8–7. Having qualified to compete on the main tour for ...

beat Pakistan's Muhammad Sajjad 8–7 to become the youngest ever world champion in snooker.

Men's finals

Champions by country

Women's finals

IBSF World 15 Reds & Team Snooker Championships

Notes

References

{{Main world championships Snooker amateur competitions Recurring sporting events established in 1963 1963 establishments in India World championships in snooker