Qualifying rounds Qualifying matches took place at
Preston Guild Hall from 26 March to 6 April 1986. All matches were played as the best of 19 frames. In the second qualifying round, the
Scottish Professional Championship winner
Stephen Hendry made a break of 141 in his victory over Paddy Browne; this was the highest break in qualifying for which Hendry earned a prize of £1,750. He had led 8–3 and 9–8 before winning the match 10–9.
Les Dodd lost only one frame against former World Snooker Championship promoter
Mike Watterson, and
Peter Francisco defeated
Fred Davis, a former
billiards and snooker world champion, by the same margin.
Robby Foldvari, who had won the 1986 WPBSA
World Billiards Championship the previous month, defeated the
1974 World Snooker Championship runner-up
Graham Miles 10–7.
John Spencer qualified to meet another former champion,
Alex Higgins, at the main stage of the competition by beating Newbury 10–7 in the final qualifying round. Defending champion
Dennis Taylor, looking "jaded" according to
Clive Everton, lost the first seven frames of his match against
Mike Hallett, who ended the first session 8–1 ahead. Taylor won five more frames, but lost the match 6–10. Like John Spencer in
1978,
Terry Griffiths in
1980,
Cliff Thorburn in
1981, and
Steve Davis in
1982, Taylor was unable to retain his first world title; this inability of a first-time champion to defend their title has become known as the "
Crucible curse". Second seed Steve Davis beat Ray Edmonds 10–4. The 16th seed
Joe Johnson defeated
Dave Martin 10–3 in the first round, his first win in three appearances at the World Championship.
Jimmy White compiled a 121 break in the final frame of his 10–7 victory over
John Virgo. Three-time world champion Spencer made his final appearance at the tournament, losing 7–10 to Alex Higgins in the first round. Future seven-time world champion Stephen Hendry made his Crucible debut, losing 8–10 to
Willie Thorne in the first round. Aged 17 years and 3 months, Hendry was the youngest player ever to compete at the World Snooker Championship. Another debutant in 1986 was Danny Fowler, who lost 2–10 to Terry Griffiths. Six-time world champion
Ray Reardon was knocked out 8–10 by
John Campbell. In the other first-round matches,
Doug Mountjoy beat
Perrie Mans 10–3, Alex Higgins missed a black ball from its spot that would have put him 6–2 ahead of Terry Griffiths at the end of their first session, but the frame went to Griffiths, leaving Higgins just 5–3 ahead. The match between Kirk Stevens and Eddie Charlton also finished with a deciding frame, Stevens winning the last three frames from 10 to 12 behind, to prevail 13–12. Joe Johnson led Mike Hallett 5–3 after their first session, on his way to completing a 13–6 win, making a break of 110 in frame 13. John Parrott and Jimmy White were level at 4–4 and 6–6, before White won a run of four frames to lead 10–6 after the second session.
Quarter-finals The quarter-finals were played as best-of-25-frames matches over three sessions on 29 and 30 April. Joe Johnson led Terry Griffiths 9–7 at the end of the first day of their match. On resumption of play, Griffiths won five frames in a row to come within one frame of winning the match at 12–9. Despite his three-frame deficit, Johnson took the next four frames, making two century breaks on the way to a 13–12 victory. Steve Davis played Jimmy White in what was effectively a rematch of the
1984 World Snooker Championship final. Davis made a break of 134 in the opening frame and played consistently well in securing a 13–5 victory, White having missed a number of relatively simple pots. Tony Knowles played Kirk Stevens in the fourth quarter-final. The pair were level at 4–4 after the first session, and then again at 8–8 after the second. At the beginning of the final session, Knowles won five out of six frames to win the match 13–9. The first semi-final was between Tony Knowles and Joe Johnson. Knowles led 1–0 and 2–1 but ended their first session 3–4 behind, having missed middle pocket pots to allow his opponent into both the sixth and seventh frames. According to Sydney Friskin's match report in
The Times, Johnson appeared to be relaxed and was potting well as he built a 10–5 lead over Knowles by the end of the second session, and finished the third session 14–8 ahead. Johnson won the match despite having taken painkillers for a
cyst on his back before the start of play. Steve Davis played Cliff Thorburn in the second semi-final. Leading 3–2, Thorburn was on course for a maximum break in the sixth frame but failed on the ninth black, allowing Davis to go on and win the frame and level the match at 3–3. Davis was considered much more likely to win the final, reflected in the bookmakers' odds of 2/9 for Davis and 5/1 for Johnson. Davis took a 3–1 lead before the first mid-session interval, making breaks of 108 and 107. Johnson then took the next three frames to finish the first session 4–3 ahead. Davis made a strong start to the second session, winning four frames in succession to put himself 7–4 ahead. After the next mid-session interval, Johnson won four consecutive frames, On the second day, Johnson wore an unusual pair of red, pink and white leather shoes. Davis, as the World Championship runner-up for a second consecutive year, commented to interviewer
David Vine, "We can't go on meeting like this, David," and Johnson later retorted, "I hope that we can still be friends." Johnson's attacking style of snooker, notable for his long potting, has been seen as a harbinger of the style that became dominant in the 1990s. A condensed version of the final was showcased on
BBC Two on 22 April 2020 in place of the
2020 World Snooker Championship, which had been postponed because of the
coronavirus pandemic. == Main draw ==