China Open snooker comeback confirmed with record-breaking prize fund and unique format

The China Open has a long, decorated, and important history on snooker's top flight.

First held in 1999, Ronnie O'Sullivan won the inaugural edition staged in Shanghai before successfully defending the title the following year in Shenzhen.

In 2002, with the event back in Shanghai, Mark Williams recovered from 8-5 down to defeat Anthony Hamilton 9-8 in the title match.

After a small hiatus, the competition returned to the calendar in 2005, then in Beijing, with the capital city being its home until 2019.

Home hero Ding Junhui - who turned 18-years-old during the event - produced one of the most significant results in snooker history when he defeated seven-time world champion Stephen Hendry 9-5 in the final to land his maiden ranking crown, and spark a green baize boom in the Far East.

From then, the China Open remained an annual fixture on the snooker circuit until the 2020 edition which was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It stayed off the roster, until now.

Following information online suggesting the China Open was going to be revived, and a reserved date on next season's provisional calendar, the World Snooker Tour has officially announced that it is coming back next season.

The city of Taiyuan - situated in the north of the country - will be the tournament's new home.

The main venue stages of the 2026 China Open will take place across nine days between August 8-16. According to the projected 2026/27 season calendar sent to professional players a few weeks ago, it looks set to be part of an 'Asian swing' with the Shanghai Masters held shortly before, and the Wuhan Open just after.

Details have also been released about the format, which makes for interesting reading.

The China Open is set to feature 144/146 players in total, but only 34 players featuring at the main venue in the Far East - presumably with the world's top 16 all getting a ticket straight to the television lights. Initial matches in China are the best of 11 frames.

The qualifying rounds for the China Open will be staged in the UK a few weeks before, with Chinese wildcards apparently coming to the UK to compete in the preliminaries.

Whilst the WST announcement doesn't confirm this, it seems likely that the qualifying format will be the same as that in the UK and World Championships, with a tiered system of four rounds.

However, the statement also explains that two more local wildcards will play at the main venue - joining the 32 there - facing two of the qualifiers in a preliminary round.

Currently, the richest event staged in China is the Xi'an Grand Prix which this season had a prize fund of £850,000, with £177,000 going to the champion, Mark Williams.

The Shanghai Masters (£825,000), Wuhan Open (£700,000), International Championship (£825,000) and World Open (£825,000) were also held in mainland China this season, with similar prize funds. All these events, as well as the World Grand Prix in Hong Kong, are understood to be staying on the calendar next term, so the China Open adds to an already busy snooker schedule.

But the new China Open will create history, with a seven-figure prize fund of £1.2 million - the most ever for a professional snooker event in the Far East.

It is unclear how much the winner will receive, but it is rumoured it could be around £300,000.

This will be welcome news to professional players with doubts around whether the Saudi Arabia Masters will be held next season due to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, and a reported cooling of sporting projects by promoters in the region.

During his recent annual trip to the World Snooker Championship at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, sports promotions supremo Barry Hearn announced that both the UK and World Championships will have 25% prize fund boosts next season.

The most successful players in China Open snooker history are Mark Williams and Mark Selby who have each won the crown three times, and been runner-up twice.

Ding, Neil Robertson - who won the last staging in 2019 and is therefore still the reigning champion - O'Sullivan, Peter Ebdon and Judd Trump are all two-time winners of the title.