The 1982 World Snooker Championship (also known as the 1982 Embassy World Snooker Championship for sponsorship purposes) was a professional ranking snooker tournament that took place between 30 April and 16 May 1982 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England.
Alex Higgins won in the final 18–15 against Ray Reardon. The tournament was sponsored by cigarette manufacturer Embassy.
The previous three world champions, who were also the top three seeds, were all defeated in the first round: defending champion Steve Davis lost 1–10 to Tony Knowles, 1979 champion Terry Griffiths lost 6–10 to Willie Thorne and world number 1 and 1980 champion Cliff Thorburn lost 4–10 to Jimmy White.
Higgins reached the final after an epic 16–15 semi-final victory over Jimmy White. Trailing 15–14 and 59–0, Higgins saved himself with a memorable clearance of 69 and then won the decider for a place in the final. The final between Higgins and Reardon was a repeat of the 1976 final, which Reardon won 27–16. From 15–15, Higgins won the next three frames and clinched the title with a break of 135 in the final frame. A tearful Higgins summoned his wife and baby daughter from the audience to celebrate with him.
Jim Donnelly became the first Scottish player to play at the Crucible.
This was the first tournament in which the top 8 seeds had to play in the first round, taking the tournament from 24 to 32 players. This format still remains today.
The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below:
Winner: £25,000
Runner-up: £12,500
Semi-final: £7,000
Quarter-final: £3,500
Last 16: £2,250
Last 32: £1,250
Highest break: £2,500
Maximum break: £10,000
Total: £110,000
Main draw
Shown below are the results for each round. The numbers in parentheses beside some of the players are their seeding ranks (each championship has 16 seeds and 16 qualifiers).
There were 10 century breaks at the championship, the highest being 143 by Willie Thorne. There was also a £5,000 bonus for compiling a higher break than the championship record of 145.
143, 122, 112, 106 Willie Thorne
135, 118 Alex Higgins
126, 102 Jimmy White
111 Kirk Stevens
100 John Virgo
