The winner of the title was Ray Reardon, who defeated Alex Higgins 27–16 in the final at Wythenshawe Forum, to claim his fifth World Championship.

[1] Joe Davis won the first World Championship in 1927, organised by the Billiards Association and Control Council, the final match being held at Camkin's Hall in Birmingham, England.

[5]: 110–113  The title was contested on an occasional challenge basis until 1969, when the World Championship reverted to a knockout tournament format.

These competitors in the main tournament were selected using a combination of the top players based on results from the three previous years and the winners of a pre-tournament qualification stage.

[2]: 48–50  The defending champion was Ray Reardon, who had defeated Eddie Charlton 31–30 in the 1975 final to win his fourth title.

[10] Graham Miles was appointed as a substitute for Taylor, but got stuck in traffic and abandoned his journey when he realised he would not arrive on time.

[10] The main tournament matches were held at either Middlesbrough Town Hall or at the Wythenshawe Forum, Manchester.

The planned breakdown of prize money for the event is shown below,[15][16] but it was later decided that there would not be a playoff for third and fourth place.

[17] At Blackpool, veteran Jackie Rea, who had made his tournament debut in 1949, eliminated Ian Anderson 8–5, and then saw off Bernard Bennett by the same score.

[18] He lost in the deciding frame to David Taylor in a match that determined a qualifier for the main event.

[18] In the first qualifying round, Ron Gross defeated Maurice Parkin 8–5, Lou Condo eliminated Marcus Owen 8–6 and Dennis Wheelwright won only a single frame against Meadowcroft.

[18] The leading 14 players in the Order of Merit, a ranking based on performances in the preceding three world championships, received automatic entry to the final stages and were joined by two winners from the qualifying competition.

[20] After a complaint by Reardon about distractions, spectators were barred from bringing drinks into the arena and from lighting cigarettes when the competitors were in the process of making their shot.

[23] A quarter-final between two of the unseeded players was set as Meadowcroft won five of the next six frames after leading Williams 9–5; and Miles lost 10–15 to Perrie Mans.

[19] Mans was known to be a skilled potter and safety exponent, but lacked position play; he had made only two breaks of 50 or more in reaching the semi-finals.

[21] According to Everton, Mans's "limitations were drastically exposed",[21]: 42  as Reardon took the first session 4–2 and went on to win 20–10 with a top break of 133.

[4] During the evening session, referee Bill Timms declared that Higgins had failed to hit the object ball after being snookered by Reardon.

[21] With Higgins conceding several frames while there were still red balls on the table during the sixth session, Reardon ended the third day leading 24–15.

[21] Reardon won three of the first frames on the fourth morning to secure his fifth title victory at 27–16, with a session to spare.

[21][33] Writing in The Guardian, Everton felt that Reardon "won without ever displaying his most dominating form", and that he "looks in a class of his own and there is no obvious successor in sight.

[32] Similarly, The Times report of the final session concluded that "Reardon looked a class above the rest.

[2]: 52  However, he complained that the promoter, Hayes, had declined to tell the company details of income from gate receipts and other sources.

[37] Sports historian Ian Morrison wrote that following the "near disaster" of 1976 for the sponsors, "Watterson convinced them that he could make the championships work, and the following year he proved himself correct.

"[37] A similar account is provided by Everton: "Pessimists feared that Embassy would pull out of snooker forthwith.

[41] Dennis Hughes was awarded the £500 winner's prize after defeating Colin Myers by 99 points to 14 in the final.

[41] John Virgo took £500 for winning the invitational Embassy International Amateur Tournament,[42] the results of which are shown below.