The International Championship is one of the newest ranking events on the professional snooker tour, with the tournament having only been in existence since 2012.

The tournament hasn't been staged since 2019 with Judd Trump the defending champion, after defeating Shaun Murphy 10–3 in the previous final. Having secured the Northern Ireland Open last time out, Trump will have high hopes of repeating the feat as he goes for a fourth successive ranking tournament win. 

Here is everything you need to know about the tournament, which is held at the Tianjin People's Stadium, in Tianjin, China.

What	International Championship
Where	Tianjin People's Stadium, Tianjin, China
When	Sunday 5th November to Sunday 12th November, 2023
How to watch	bet365 Live Sports Streaming, Eurosport & discovery+

International Championship dates

The International Championship starts on Sunday 5th November, 2023, with the final taking place on Sunday 12th November, 2023. The dates of the event vary from year-to-year and details can be found on the WST tournament calendar. 

Qualifying for the event has already been held from 18th-23rd September 2023 at the Ponds Forge International Sports Centre in Sheffield in order to whittle the final field down to 64.

That said, some qualifiers are held-over until the venue and those matches feature the star names such as defending champion Trump, seven-time world champion Ronnie O'Sullivan and home favourite Ding Junhui.

International Championship schedule

The early rounds of the event are played on a multi-table system and the matches increase in length as the tournament progresses. 

Matches are played over a best-of-11 format until the semi-finals, which are best-of-17 frames, while the final is staged over best-of-19.

International Championship venue

The Tianjin People's Stadium will play host to the International Championship and it is a sports complex with a multi-use stadium.

The venue is housed within the stadium that hosted games for the 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup and Football preliminaries at the 2008 Summer Olympics. It also hosted the Athletics competitions at the 2017 National Games of China.

International Championship how to watch

The tournament is available to watch via bet365's live streaming service, while Eurosport have the broadcast rights with matches to be shown on their TV channels and the Eurosport Player online. Viewers will also be able to watch the event on discovery+.

International Championship previous winners

Trump is the reigning International Championship winner having defeated Murphy 10–3 in the final and the top seed will fancy his chances of following up.

Despite the snooker season only being two months in, Trump has already won three titles this season with victories in the English Open, the Wuhan Open and the Northern Ireland Open becoming the first player in a decade to win three successive ranking tournaments and only the fifth player ever to manage the feat. 

Mark Allen was crowned champion in 2018 following his win over Neil Robertson while Mark Selby won the event in both 2016 and 2017, overcoming home star Ding Junhui first before edging out Allen.

In 2015, John Higgins came out on top thanks to a convincing 10-5 win over David Gilbert while Ricky Walden claimed his biggest win of his career with victory over Allen in 2014.

Ding has won the title in front of his passionate Chinese crowd, defeating Marco Fu in a thrilling 10-9 contest in 2013.

Trump was also the inaugural winner in 2012, when he got the better of Robertson 10–8.

International Championship format

Sixty-four players from the Pro Tour entered the main draw following a pre-qualifying round, which in 2023 took place at the Ponds Forge International Sports Centre in Sheffield.

The current top-16-ranked players will play their qualification matches at the venue for the televised stages of the tournament, with those encounters, together with matches in rounds one, two and three being played over the best of 11 frames.

All matches until the semi-final are played over that format, when the match is then extended to a best-of-17 contest.

The final will be a best-of-19 match, meaning the winner must get to ten to claim the spoils.

International Championship prize money

In what is an illustrious event, the International Championship has pulled out all the stops on snooker's return to China.

There is a total of £825,000 up for grabs with the winner taking home a whopping £175,000 and the runner-up taking a consolation prize of £75,000.

Semi-finalists receive £33,000, quarter-finalists take home £22,000 and reaching the last 16 is worth £14,000.

Those that have qualified are already guaranteed £5,000 and winning one match in Tianjin is worth £9,000. There is also a highest break prize worth a further £5,000.