The World Snooker Championship snooker tournament founded in 1927 and since 1977 played at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. The event is played over 17 days in late April and early May, and is chronologically the third of the three Triple Crown events of the season since 1977–78, when the UK Championship was first held. The event was not held from 1941 to 1945 because of World War II or between 1958 and 1963 due to declining interest.