Ronnie O'Sullivan was the defending champion, having defeated Graeme Dott in the 2004 World Snooker Championship final.

Qualifier Shaun Murphy won his first ranking title by defeating Matthew Stevens 18–16 in the final.

Murphy aged 22 years and 265 days is the second youngest winner of the event after Stephen Hendry in 1990.

[1] Founded in the late 19th century by British Army soldiers stationed in India,[2] the sport was popular in Great Britain.

[3] In modern times it has been played worldwide, especially in East and Southeast Asian nations such as China, Hong Kong and Thailand.

This was the last event to be sponsored by Embassy, after cigarette advertising was banned within the United Kingdom.

[5] In the 2005 tournament, 32 professional players competed in one-on-one snooker matches played over several frames, using a single elimination format.

[6] The 32 players were selected for the event using the snooker world rankings and a pre-tournament qualification competition.

[11] Ronnie O'Sullivan had won the 2004 championship by defeating Scotland's Graeme Dott in the final 18–8.

[7][19] All 16 non-seeded spots in the main draw were filled with players from the qualifying rounds.

[22][23] The draw for the qualifying competition consisted of 70 players from the World Snooker Tour.

[27] Mark Williams made his first career maximum break of 147 in a ranking tournament during his 10–1 first round win over Robert Milkins.

The first debutant, Michael Holt, played eighth seed Paul Hunter.

[31] Hendry held a 7–2 lead after the first session, but Robertson won four frames in a row, including a break of 110.

Hendry, however, won the match 10–7 but commented his "attitude wasn't great" going into the second session, as he had a five frame lead.

[32] Higgins edged the first session of the match 5–4, but won five of the next six frames to win 10–5, including breaks of 138 and 136.

[32] Sixteenth seed Marco Fu played Ali Carter in the first round, but was defeated 4–10.

[33] Stephen Lee defeated Maltese player Tony Drago 10–5 by capitalising on a 6–3 lead after the first session.

[35] Chris Small had been struggling with the spinal condition ankylosing spondylitis all season.

[37][38] World number six Matthew Stevens held a three frame lead over Andy Hicks after the first session.

[40] The previous year's runner up Graeme Dott played world number 17 Ian McCulloch.

[47] Shaun Murphy led 1998 champion John Higgins 9–7 after two sessions, then won the match 13–8 after a break of 108.

[48] Steve Davis trailed debutant Michael Holt 2–6 and 8–10, but won five frames in a row to win 13–10.

[49] Seven-time winner Stephen Hendry took only two of the three available sessions to defeat world number 25 Anthony Hamilton 13–3.

[52] In frame 24, Doherty missed a black ball, allowing McManus to win the match with a break of 81.

[53] At the start of the final session, Williams won four straight frames, then McCulloch equalled the scores at 11–11.

[26] Defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan played Peter Ebdon in the first quarter-final.

[78][79] The qualifiers consisted of five rounds, which were played at Pontin's, Prestatyn Sands, Wales.

[6][84] The highest was a maximum break made by Williams in the 11th frame in his first round win over Robert Milkins.