snooker

Indoor game derived from billiards (via pool). It is played with 22 balls: 15 red, one each of yellow, green, brown, blue, pink, and black, and one white cueball. A tapered pole (cue) is used to propel the balls around the table. Red balls are worth one point when sunk (or ‘potted’), while the coloured balls have ascending values from two points for the yellow to seven points for the black. The world professional championship was first held in 1927. The world amateur championship was first held in 1963. A snooker World Cup team event was inaugurated at Bangkok, Thailand, in 1996. The International Olympic Committee recognized snooker as an Olympic sport in 1998.

The game, invented in 1875 by British officers serving in India, did not gain popularity among the British until the 1920s. Since then it has grown to become one of the biggest television sports in the UK, and it is gaining in popularity across Europe, the Far East, and the USA. A season-long series of ranking and invitational tournaments culminates in the World Professional Championship at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, England, every April. A women's World Open Championship was introduced in 1976, and has been staged annually since 1980.