This was the third and final world ranking event of the 1982–83 snooker season following the 1982 Professional Players Tournament.

Alex Higgins was the defending champion, having won the 1982 championship, but he lost 5–16 to Steve Davis in the semi-finals.

[1] Developed in the late 19th century by British Army soldiers stationed in India,[2] snooker was popular in the United Kingdom before being introduced to Europe and the Commonwealth.

The sport is now played worldwide, especially in East and Southeast Asian nations such as China, Hong Kong and Thailand.

The players were selected to take part using a combination of the world snooker rankings and a pre-tournament qualification tournament.

[4][5] The first World Championship, in 1927, was won by Joe Davis in a final at Camkin's Hall in Birmingham, England.

[11] The winner of the event received a prize of £30,000,[12] the highest amount ever awarded for a snooker tournament up to that point.

Patsy Fagan failed to qualify for the main draw for the first time in his career, losing 8–10 to Mick Fisher.

The reigning world billiards champion, Rex Williams, lost just one frame in qualifying, securing a 10–0 whitewash over Mike Darrington and then defeating Fred Davis 10–1.

Cliff Wilson faced Joe Johnson in the second round, a rematch of the 1978 World Amateur Snooker Championship final.

In the first round, Wilson had lost only one frame against Clive Everton, whilst Johnson had whitewashed Paul Watchorn.

[19] Steve Davis was Coral bookmakers' favourite to win the event, priced at 11/8 the day before the tournament began.

Davis had won four individual tournaments during the season leading up to the competition,[13] whilst Reardon had claimed three titles, and Higgins's only notable success had been in the 1983 Irish Professional Championship.

[23][24] Three-time former winner John Spencer defeated Mike Hallett 10–7 in a closely contested match.

[27] The 1979 champion Griffiths trailed Wildman 7–8 but won the final three frames to secure a 10–8 victory.

[28] In an attacking match, Meo defeated his childhood friend Jimmy White 10–8 having led 6–3 after the first session.

[29] Reardon, having been 5–4 in front overnight, prevailed 10–7 against Hughes in a match that featured few breaks higher than 30.

While he was completing the break, play stopped on the tournament's second table because his friend and fellow Canadian Werbeniuk wanted to watch.

[41] Higgins said that he wanted a change of referee, and threatened to walk out, but following a discussion with tournament promoter Mike Watterson, agreed to return.

Werbeniuk recorded a break of 109 to level at 11–11, but Higgins won the next two frames to take the match 13–11.

[35][43] As of 2019, this was still the second-longest session (at 6 hours and 11 minutes), and the third-latest finish, since the World Snooker Championship has been held at the Crucible.

[12][44] At the mid-session interval, the Crucible Theatre was evacuated due to a death threat against Davis that had been telephoned to the venue, saying that he would be shot if he won a tenth frame.

Higgins replied with a break of 74 to reduce his deficit to 5–11, but Davis then won the next five frames to take the match 16–5.

[53] Snooker historian Clive Everton commented that the long matches Thorburn had played earlier in the tournament "left him so drained ... that he was able to offer only token resistance.

[50] Davis thanked his family in his post-match speech, and said that his father, and his coach Frank Callan, were the only two people that could help him with snooker.

[12] An emotional Davis also offered his commiserations to Thorburn, and said that "he has had a lot of hard things happening to him and I want to thank him for a great final.

"[12] The £30,000 prize money brought Davis's winnings from tournaments to more than £80,000 for the season, with his expected earnings for the following year being estimated at £750,000, including income from sponsorship deals, and from charging £3,000 for playing exhibition matches.