It was held at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England, the 31st consecutive year that the World Snooker Championship was staged at the venue.

The successful 16 qualifiers met the top 16 players from the snooker world rankings in the tournament's main stage at the Crucible.

A total of 68 century breaks were compiled during the event's main stage, the highest being a 144 made by Ali Carter.

The first World Snooker Championship final took place in 1927 at Camkin's Hall in Birmingham, England, and was won by Joe Davis.

[3][4][5] Scottish player Stephen Hendry had been the most successful participant at the World Championship in the modern era, having won the title seven times.

[17] This made Dott the 14th first-time champion who failed to defend his title since the tournament moved to the Crucible in 1977, succumbing to what has been called the 'Crucible curse'.

[18] Ebdon manufactured a 4‍–‍0 lead, but Bond stopped the rot taking the following frame on the blue and then produced breaks of 40, 68, 46 and 114 to go 5‍–‍4 in front for the first time.

[19] He won 10‍–‍4 over Michael Holt, whose "inability to deal with frustration" was heavily criticised by snooker commentator Clive Everton, writing for The Guardian.

[19] Andy Hicks, a semi-finalist in 1995, was thrown out by Ali Carter, who compiled century breaks of 112 and 129 en route to a 10‍–‍4 win.

[20] There were five debutants in this year's tournament: Mark Allen, Judd Trump, Ding Junhui, David Gilbert and Joe Delaney.

[20] Delaney won two deciders against Barry Pinches and two-time world semi-finalist Alan McManus to reach the Crucible, but, having trailed 0‍–‍5, he was beaten 2‍–‍10 by the 2000 and 2005 runner-up Matthew Stevens.

[8] Ding, considered by bookmakers to be among the favourites for the title,[13][22] was drawn against Ronnie O'Sullivan, who alleged that the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association draw had been fixed.

[13] O'Sullivan noted that he had been drawn to Marco Fu in the first round of the 2003 edition and to 2004 European Open and 2004 UK Championship winner Stephen Maguire in both 2004 and 2005.

[8][20] "Springy cushions, many kicks and errors accounted for a lower standard than expected", wrote Everton about the match.

[8] Maguire, semi-finalist of the 2007 Welsh Open during the season, defeated Joe Perry by the same margin, compiling breaks of 66, 64, 83, 124, 68 and 56 in the process.

I felt as though I'd got a family of ferrets in my waistcoat", said about the last session Parrott,[26] who would never reach the final stages of the World Championship again.

[27] Breaks of 68, 64 and 56 enabled McCulloch to remain at touching distance of Hamilton, who then made two half-centuries and two centuries of his own for a 13‍–‍8 victory.

[30][8] Maguire, who would later praise Swail as a "comeback player", was told off by referee Michaela Tabb for punching the table in desperation after missing a pot, but he managed to prevent his rival from turning the scores around and sealed victory with a 13‍–‍8 result by taking two fought frames.

[8] Allen could have made it 10‍–‍11, but he failed to pot a black ball in a frame which then went in Stevens's direction, who closed the match with a 13‍–‍9 score.

[32] The Scottish player, chasing a record-extending eighth title, had changed cues three weeks ahead of the tournament, but blamed the poor performance on his lack of confidence and on his inability to reproduce his "practice form" on the Crucible table.

[32] Higgins compiled breaks of 98, 135 and 100 in the second session against O'Brien, which ended 12‍–‍4, and he only needed one more frame at the resumption to secure victory, and he took it at the first chance.

[33] Robertson faced O'Sullivan, whom he had defeated en route to both of his tournament wins during the season,[24] 5‍–‍1 in the quarter-finals of the Grand Prix[34] and 5‍–‍4 at the same stage of the Welsh Open.

[24] At the resumption, O'Sullivan compiled another century to go 8‍–‍3 in front,[24] but Robertson replied winning six frames on the trot, featuring breaks of 53, 77, 140 and 117.

[8] In his match against Ebdon, who admitted to "never" turning up during the event, Selby compiled consecutive century breaks of 100, 122 and 119 in the second session to go into the last one with a 10‍–‍6 lead.

[8] Maguire, who faced Hamilton, had had a trophyless season coming into the World Championship, but he was still pleased with the good results he had got.

[40] O'Sullivan launched a comeback in the final session, but Higgins held it off and, in his own words, kept his "composure at the end" to seal a 13‍–‍9 victory.

[41] Despite only needing two more frames in the last session to advance into the semi-finals, Stevens could not prevent Murphy's comeback, who produced breaks of 92, 60, 61 and 94 for a 13‍–‍12 victory.

[41] Selby, playing in the quarter-finals of the World Championship for the first time in his career, shared the first six frames of his encounter with Carter.

[47][48] Higgins, who was praiseful of Maguire's "unbelievable pots", thought that having given up on alcohol was helping with his game as he was more focused on practicing.

[54] The second session ended with an eight-frame cushion for Higgins, a lead that had never been reversed in a World Championship final played at the Crucible.