Champion of Champions

History of Champion of Champions Snooker

The Champion of Champions Snooker tournament was introduced in 2013 as a new elite invitational event designed to bring together winners from the major tournaments played during the preceding 12 months. The competition filled a space in the snooker calendar by creating a direct meeting point for recent champions rather than relying solely on conventional rankings.

The inaugural Champion of Champions was held in Coventry in November 2013 and featured 16 players. The tournament was organised around four groups of four players, with each group producing one player for the semi-finals. The concept was straightforward but compelling: every competitor had already won something significant, so the event could legitimately advertise itself as a tournament of champions.

Ronnie O’Sullivan won the inaugural title in 2013, immediately giving the new tournament considerable prestige. He successfully defended the trophy in 2014, becoming the first player to win the Champion of Champions twice. Matchroom records from the early years describe the event as featuring 16 major stars, with four groups of four and the group winners progressing to the knockout stages.

O’Sullivan’s victory in 2013 was followed by another title in 2014, establishing an early benchmark for the competition. The tournament soon developed a roll of honour containing many of the defining players of the modern era. John Higgins, Neil Robertson and Shaun Murphy were among the early champions, helping to reinforce the event’s reputation as a genuine test of elite-level snooker.

Neil Robertson became Champion of Champions winner in 2015, adding another major title to an already impressive career. John Higgins later won the event, while Shaun Murphy also joined the list of champions. The variety of winners was significant because it demonstrated that the tournament was not simply an extension of one player’s dominance. Different styles and generations could succeed.

The venue also became an important part of the tournament’s identity. Coventry’s Ricoh Arena hosted several editions during the event’s formative years. Matchroom’s 2018 tournament information listed the Ricoh Arena as the venue and recorded a 16-player field, a £370,000 prize fund and the tournament’s 2013 inaugural year.

By the latter part of the 2010s, the Champion of Champions had firmly established itself as a major event on the professional snooker calendar. The tournament was attracting extensive television coverage, while the format continued to provide a compelling blend of short-format early matches and longer contests as players progressed.

The 2019 edition was particularly memorable. Neil Robertson defeated Judd Trump in the final in what Matchroom subsequently described as one of the great contests in the event’s history. The tournament also attracted close to one million ITV viewers, highlighting the Champion of Champions’ growing popularity with the wider British sporting audience.

The tournament continued to feature many of snooker’s biggest names in the early 2020s. Judd Trump became one of its most successful modern competitors, eventually winning the title in 2021. His success was particularly notable because he has remained a regular presence deep into the competition, demonstrating how consistently he has performed at major events.

The Champion of Champions also developed a reputation for giving opportunities to players from outside the traditional group of established stars. Qualification can come through winning ranking events, invitational tournaments and other recognised competitions, allowing players enjoying a breakthrough season to share the field with multiple world champions.

That approach was illustrated particularly well by the 2024 tournament. Mark Allen entered as defending champion, while the field included Judd Trump, Kyren Wilson, Ronnie O’Sullivan, Mark Selby, Neil Robertson and other major names. The group draw separated the leading seeds, creating four competitive sections before the knockout stages.

Mark Williams produced one of the most notable stories in the tournament’s recent history in 2024. The Welshman had appeared at the Champion of Champions three times previously and lost in the first round on each occasion. In his fourth appearance, however, Williams finally won a match and went on to capture the title, defeating Xiao Guodong 10-6 in the final.

Xiao’s run was significant in its own right. He reached the 2024 final after defeating Ronnie O’Sullivan, Mark Selby and Mark Allen, three players with enormous experience at the top of the sport. His place in the tournament had been secured after winning his maiden ranking title at the Wuhan Open, demonstrating exactly how the Champion of Champions can reward players who reach a new level during the season.

The 2025 edition represented another significant chapter in the event’s development. It moved to Leicester’s Mattioli Arena for the first time, with the tournament running from 10 to 16 November. The field once again contained a mixture of world champions, ranking-event winners and other tournament champions.

Judd Trump reached the semi-finals for the seventh time in 2025, illustrating his remarkable consistency in the competition. Trump had already won the Champion of Champions in 2021 and remained one of the tournament’s most familiar figures.

However, the 2025 title ultimately went to Mark Selby. The four-time World Champion defeated Stephen Maguire, Mark Williams and Neil Robertson before beating Trump 10-5 in the final. Selby’s victory was his first Champion of Champions title, and he became the tenth different winner in the first ten tournaments of the 2025-26 season across the wider professional calendar at that point.

Selby’s final performance was especially impressive. The match was level at 5-5 before Selby took control, winning the final five frames. He finished with three successive century breaks, including a 138 total clearance, the highest break of the tournament. It was a suitably clinical ending for a player renowned for combining tactical intelligence with relentless match-play discipline.

Across its history, the Champion of Champions has therefore developed from a new invitational tournament into one of professional snooker’s most recognisable elite events. Its central idea has remained remarkably consistent: bring together players who have already demonstrated that they can win and see who can beat the other champions.

The event’s enduring appeal comes from that simple premise. The Champion of Champions is not merely about ranking positions or reputation. Players have to arrive having earned their invitation through success, then prove once again that they can handle the pressure of facing another champion. Over more than a decade, that formula has produced victories for legends, breakthrough runs for rising stars and plenty of matches that snooker fans remember long after the final black has disappeared into a pocket.

From Ronnie O’Sullivan’s back-to-back triumphs in the opening two editions to Mark Williams’ remarkable 2024 breakthrough and Mark Selby’s first title in 2025, the history of Champion of Champions Snooker has continually added new chapters. With its elite fields, distinctive group format and succession of world-class champions, it has earned its place as one of the most entertaining events in the modern snooker calendar.