Find out how many frames are played in each round of the World Snooker Championship as Sheffield's iconic Crucible Theatre plays host to the 2026 staging of the event.
World Snooker Championship Format - Round-by-Round
- Last 32 - Best-of-19 frames
- Last 16 - Best-of-25 frames
- Quarter-Finals - Best-of-25 frames
- Semi-Finals - Best-of-33 frames
- Final - Best-of-35 frames
The World Snooker Championship is the ultimate test of mental endurance as well as technical ability on the famous green baize.
Renowned for its long format, matches at the Crucible often takes days to complete.
Starting in the first round, matches undertake a best-of-19 frames format, across two sessions of play, meaning the player to reach the magical tally of 10 first is declared the winner.
For matches in the second round and quarter-finals, the threshold extends yet further to a best-of-25 frame format, which is played over three sessions, before the two semi-finals are contested over a maximum 33 frames.
The final, which takes place across four session over two days, is a race to 18 frames (best-of-35 frames).
Every World Snooker Championship final since 1980 has been played over this format after the governing body opted to make significant changes to the structure of the event, which incredibly saw a ludicrous 145 frames played in the finals between 1946 and 1949 as well as in 1952.
