2005 World Snooker Championship

Snooker tournament, held April–May 2005
the snooker tournament

The 2005 World Snooker Championship (also referred to as the 2005 Embassy World Snooker Championship for the purposes of sponsorship) was a professional snooker tournament that took place at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. The tournament started on 16 April, and ended on 2 May 2005. The event was the eighth and final world ranking event of the 2004–05 snooker season, following the 2005 China Open. The event was organised by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. Due to laws banning advertising cigarettes in Great Britain, this was the last time the event was sponsored by the cigarette company Embassy. The event had a prize fund of £1,121,800, with the winner receiving £250,000. Ronnie O'Sullivan was the defending champion, having defeated Graeme Dott in the 2004 World Snooker Championship final. O'Sullivan lost in the quarter finals 11–13 against Peter Ebdon. Qualifier Shaun Murphy won his first ranking title by defeating Matthew Stevens 18–16 in the final. This was the first time that a qualifier won the championship since Terry Griffiths did so in 1979. Murphy aged 22 years and 265 days is the second youngest winner of the event after Stephen Hendry in 1990. There was a total of 63 century breaks made during the tournament, the highest being a maximum made by Mark Williams in the first round.

The World Snooker Championship is an annual cue sport tournament and the official world championship of the game of snooker. Founded in the late 19th century by British Army soldiers stationed in India, the sport was popular in Great Britain. In modern times it has been played worldwide, especially in East and Southeast Asian nations such as China, Hong Kong and Thailand. The event was sponsored by the cigarette company Embassy. This was the last event to be sponsored by Embassy, after cigarette advertising was banned within the United Kingdom. The following season was sponsored by 888. com. Since 1977, the event has been held at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. Ronnie O'Sullivan had won the 2004 championship by defeating Scotland's Graeme Dott in the final 18–8. This was the second time O'Sullivan had won the world championship, the first being in 2001. The event was organised by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. The event was broadcast in the United Kingdom on the BBC.

The first round was played 16–21 April as best of 19 frames matches played over two Hunter led the match at 5–4 after the first session but lost the first three frames of the second session. World number six Matthew Stevens held a three frame lead over Andy Hicks after the first session. He increased his lead to 8–3 with a break of 105.

The quarter finals were played on 26 and 27 April as best of 25 frames matches over three sessions. At one point during the match, Ebdon took five and a half minutes to make a break of 12, significantly longer than O'Sullivan's maximum break in 1997. During the match, Ebdon took over three minutes on one shot, with O'Sullivan asking an audience member what time it was. Steve Davis reached his first quarter final since 1996. He played qualifier Shaun Murphy. but Murphy levelled the match at 12–12 after three sessions. By winning, Murphy was only the fourth qualifier to reach the final. and won the 2003 UK Championship. Before this event, Murphy had not reached a ranking event final. His best was reaching the semi finals at the 2004 British Open, before losing 6–0 to John Higgins. Stevens led 10–6 after the second session and 12–11 at the end of the third session. However, Murphy defeated Stevens 18–16. Murphy made three century breaks during the final to Stevens' one, the highest of which was a 137.

Shown below are the results for each round. The numbers in parentheses beside some of the players are their seeding ranks, while players in bold denote match winners.