Founded in 1931, the
Women's Billiards Association (WBA) organised an amateur women's
snooker championship that took place most years from 1933 until the 1970s. but then discontinued it due to lack of public interest. including former amateur champions
Maureen Baynton and Rosemary Davies, who both came out of retirement, Australian player
Lesley McIlrath won the final 4–2 over
Agnes Davies, who had won the
Women's Professional Snooker Championship in 1949. and a five-tournament
Grand Prix series, won by
Mandy Fisher. The
1985 Amateur Championship attracted 78 entries and was won by
Allison Fisher, who lost only one during the tournament; this is recognised today as the 1985 edition of the tournament. The previous record for the tournament prize fund had been £10,000, with £3,500 for the winner. It was the first event in Matchroom's five-year deal with the WLBSA, which guaranteed at least £50,000 in world championship prize money across five years.
Karen Corr won the title in
1990,
1995 and
1997; and
Kelly Fisher won the title five times in six years from
1998 to
2003. In
1994, the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final were held in
New Delhi, India, the tournament's first staging outside the United Kingdom. The prize money was reduced in 1994, and again in 1995, when the final stages were again held in New Delhi. During the next edition, which extended from 1996 into
1997 due to delays in scheduling the final rounds, Hearn requested the termination of the contract with the WLBSA to promote the event in future. In 1997, the
World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) took over the WLBSA, pledging to provide additional prize money. From
1998 to
2003, Embassy sponsored the tournament, with the semi-finals and final taking place at the
Crucible Theatre in
Sheffield during the
World Snooker Championship. The WPBSA ceased supporting the women's circuit in 2003, following the UK government's restrictions on tobacco sponsorship of sport, and the championship was not held in 2004. In 2018, the World Ladies Billiards and Snooker Association was rebranded as World Women's Snooker, and the tournament was renamed the World Women's Snooker Championship. The tournament was not staged in 2020 and 2021 due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, the tournament's trophy was renamed the Mandy Fisher Trophy. Beginning in 2021, the World Women's Snooker Tour became an official qualification pathway to the World Snooker Tour. The World Women's Champion automatically receives a professional tour card for the following two seasons, although if she already holds a place on the professional tour, the next highest ranked player not on tour will receive a place. The
2022 and
2023 tournaments were won respectively by Thai players
Mink Nutcharut and
Baipat Siripaporn, ending a 19-year period in which every world title had been won either by Evans or Ng.
Bai Yulu defeated Nutcharut 6–5 in the final, becoming the first winner from mainland China. The highest break in the history of the tournament is 127 by Bai in the group stages of the 2023 event.
Ann-Marie Farren, who was aged 16 years and 47 days when she won the title in
1987, is recognised by
Guinness World Records as the tournament's youngest winner as of 2024, although Hillyard was only 15 when she won the 1984 amateur championship. ==Winners==