The Six Crimson World Championship commences on Monday in Thailand, marking its return to the calendar for the primary time since 2019.
Beforehand an annual fixture on the schedule, the match was repeatedly postponed or cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
However the match is lastly again with quite a lot of massive stars in attendance and an enormous sum of cash to combat for in Bangkok.
Prize, historical past, format
There may be 4,200,000 Thai baht on supply for the champion on Saturday, which converts to about £100,000.
Stephen Maguire will lastly have the chance to defend the title he received three years in the past, when he overcame fellow Scot John Higgins within the remaining.
Maguire is considerably of a six-red specialist having additionally claimed glory in 2014, though given his latest kind he most likely received’t be among the many favourites this week.
A number of different contributors within the 2023 Six Crimson World Championship draw have loads of expertise within the reduced-balls format as nicely.
Dwelling hero Thepchaiya Un-Nooh, Ding Junhui, and Ricky Walden have all featured in two finals, profitable one every.
Mark Williams and Jimmy White are the opposite former champions within the discipline which has been comprised via a mixture of invites and qualifiers.
The format is similar as in earlier editions with the 32-player lineup first break up into eight round-robin teams of 4, earlier than the highest two from every group advance to the knockout section of the occasion.
Six Crimson World Championship draw
Alongside the previous winners, there are a number of different formidable rivals concerned.
World champion and world primary Ronnie O’Sullivan will take part for the primary time and has been positioned in a gaggle alongside Thai legend James Wattana.
Current Masters champion Judd Trump is again for the primary time since 2015, whereas there are spots for Higgins, Stuart Bingham, Robert Milkins, Hossein Vafaei, Ken Doherty, and Mink Nutcharut as nicely.
It had been initially reported by the World Snooker Tour that quite a few different members of the highest 16 on this planet rankings could be participating.
Mark Selby, Mark Allen, Shaun Murphy, Kyren Wilson, Jack Lisowski, Luca Brecel, Ali Carter, and Barry Hawkins have been all presupposed to characteristic however have withdrawn.
Spherical-robin teams (L32)
| GROUP A | GROUP B |
| Stephen Maguire | Zhou Yuelong |
| Ding Junhui | Tom Ford |
| Zhang Anda | Thepchaiya Un-Nooh |
| Mink Nutcharut | Jimmy White |
| GROUP C | GROUP D |
| John Higgins | Judd Trump |
| Hossein Vafaei | Ricky Walden |
| Ken Doherty | Ma Hailong |
| Poramin Danjirakul | Kritsanut Lertsattayathorn |
| GROUP E | GROUP F |
| Matthew Selt | Mark Williams |
| Robert Milkins | Joe Perry |
| Chris Wakelin | Andres Petrov |
| Dechawat Poomjaeng | Sunny Akani |
| GROUP G | GROUP H |
| Jordan Brown | Ronnie O’Sullivan |
| Stuart Bingham | Jimmy Robertson |
| Noppon Saengkham | James Wattana |
| Mahmoud El Hareedy | Stan Moody |
The place to observe
There shall be stay protection all through Europe on Eurosport and discovery+.
Different choices can be found to viewers the world over, which could be seen over on the WST web site.
Featured picture credit score: WST
