The main tournament was broadcast in the United Kingdom by the BBC, and was sponsored by the Embassy cigarette company.

Steve Davis, Terry Griffiths and Kirk Stevens all qualified for the Crucible stage for the first time.

The defending champion was Ray Reardon, who had won the title for a sixth time by defeating Perrie Mans by 25 frames to 18 in the 1978 final.

[7][8] The defending champion was Ray Reardon, who had won his sixth world title by defeating Perrie Mans 25–18 in the 1978 final.

[13] The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below:[14] The qualifying competition took place from 25 March to 7 April at Romiley Forum, Stockport, and the Northern Snooker Centre, Leeds.

[12] Tournament debutants Steve Davis and Kirk Stevens both achieved 9–1 wins, against Ian Anderson and Roy Amdor respectively.

[16] Before the main competition started, Coral made Reardon their bookmaker's favourite, at odds of 2–1, followed by Eddie Charlton at 5–1, and John Spencer and Alex Higgins who were each priced at 6–1.

[18] Aged 65 years and 247 days, he became the oldest ever player to win a match at the Crucible when he defeated Stevens 13–8.

The prize money for the tournament's highest break was £500, whilst beating the record would have earnt an additional £5,000.

[6] The last session ended at 1:40 a.m., having taken five hours and 25 minutes to play, and set a record for the latest finish of any match.

[6][27] This duration was just eight minutes less than the longest world championship session on record, which occurred during Reardon and Fred Davis's match in 1969.

[6] Griffiths took the next two frames, and completed his passage into the final at 19–17 after Charlton, who was leading by 48 points, missed an attempt to pot a red while using the half-butt.

[6] In a post-match interview with David Vine, Griffiths said "I'm in the final now, you know", with what snooker historian Clive Everton described as "an engaging mixture of pride and disbelief".

[25][6][29] According to Snooker Scene, Taylor displayed the "more mature match temperament" throughout, while Virgo "fumed visibly" after he made errors or was unlucky.

[30] The final, between Dennis Taylor and Terry Griffiths, took place from 26 to 28 April, as a best-of-47 frames match scheduled over six sessions,[13] and was refereed by John Williams.

[38] After the match, he commented that he "didn't really feel I was playing for the championship until the last day ...Once I saw the winning post, Dennis did seem to fade a bit.

"[33]: 63  Fred Davis hailed Griffith's victory as "the greatest achievement the game's ever known", adding that for a player without experience of long matches to win the title was "just remarkable".

[36]: 74  Everton wrote that Griffiths was "the first authentic television age champion, a working class hero".