Qualifying (pictured in 2008) defeated former champion
Alex Higgins. Qualifying matches took place at
Preston Guild Hall from 22 March to 4 April 1989, all matches being the best of 19 frames. There were 126 participants in the qualifying competition, 16 of whom reached the main stage, where they met the 16 invited seeded players.
Bill Werbeniuk had been due to return to competitive play after a six-month ban imposed by the WPBSA for his use of
beta blockers, but did not appear for his match. From 4–9 in arrears,
Paddy Browne won six consecutive frames against Steve Meakin to progress to the next round, 10–9 after a . In the final round qualifying,
Tony Meo established a new record highest break for world championship qualifying by compiling a 142 during his defeat of
Tony Jones.
Steve Duggan eliminated two former World Championship title-holders,
Fred Davis and
John Spencer. Higgins, the world number 17, who had beaten four of the top seven players in the rankings on the way to victory at the
1989 Irish Masters on 2 April, was defeated 8–10 by Morgan the following day. Seven players qualified for the main event for the first time: Morgan, Wilkinson, Browne, O'Boye, Duggan,
Steve Newbury, and
David Roe.
First round The first round took place between 15 and 20 April, each match played over two sessions as the best of 19 frames. For the seventh time,
Cliff Wilson failed to win a match at the Crucible, eliminated 1–10 by Steve Duggan.
Mike Hallett was 0–3 behind
Doug Mountjoy before winning the fourth frame after he a , ended the first session at 4–4, Third seed
Neal Foulds lost 9–10 to
Wayne Jones, at the end of a season that saw Foulds fall from third to twentieth place in the rankings. Peter Francisco held a 7–4 lead over
Dean Reynolds but lost 7–10. Meo led the
1987 champion
Joe Johnson 8–0 before winning the match 10–5. Charlton, aged 59 years and 169 days, became the second-oldest player to win a match at the World Championship, after Fred Davis in
1979. After constructing breaks of 110, 103 and 102,
John Parrott led James 9–7. In each of the next two frames, he missed pots on the that would have won him the match, James taking both frames. The deciding frame was won by Parrott, who compiled a break of 33.
Dennis Taylor led Hughes 6–3 after their first session, and in the second session won four consecutive frames including breaks of 106 and 94, to qualify for the next round 10–3. Second seed
Jimmy White defeated
Dene O'Kane, who recorded a 127 break, 10–7.
Second round The second round, which took place between 20 and 24 April, was played as best-of-25-frames matches spread over three sessions. The afternoon session on 22 April, featuring the matches between Parrott and Taylor, and Griffiths and Francisco, had its start time delayed from 3:00 pm until 3:06 pm, commencing with a
minute's silence in acknowledgement of the Hillsborough disaster a week earlier. There was no television coverage of matches on 24 April due to strike action by the
Broadcasting and Entertainment Trades Alliance and the
National Union of Journalists relating to a pay dispute.
Quarter-finals The quarter-finals were played as best-of-25-frames matches over three sessions on 25 and 26 April. The first four frames of the second session were won by Davis, putting him 11–1 ahead. Griffiths and Hendry were level at 4–4 at the conclusion of their first session. Reynolds, who had criticised Meo for the slow pace of his play during the
1989 British Open final between the pair in March, was warned by referee
John Williams for slow play. In the final session, Hendry scored only eight points across three frames, while Davis made breaks of 63, 71, 54 and 40 to wrap up a 16–9 victory. narrowing Parrott's lead to 4–6 by winning the first two frames of the second session. The session finished with Parrott 10–5 ahead.
Final (pictured in 2014) won his sixth world championship title. The final between Steve Davis and John Parrott took place on 30 April and 1 May. It was a best-of-35-frames match scheduled for four sessions, with
John Street as referee. Davis increased his advantage to 9–2 by winning the first four frames of the evening session on 30 April, recording breaks of 42, 37, 55 and 112, whilst Parrott potted only six balls, totalling 15 points. Parrott led by 44 points in the twelfth frame after constructing a 52 break, but lost the frame after Davis compiled a 62 break. and his sixth title, to equal Reardon's total since the competition was re-launched in
1969. and the pair played an
exhibition match at the venue in place of the last session. Parrott said afterwards that "Me not playing anything like, and Steve playing exceptionally well, that's a recipe for 18–3." The two players occupied the top places in the
1989/1990 world rankings, calculated based on results from the previous two seasons; Davis retaining first position with 64 points, followed by Parrott on 48. Parrott later won the
1991 World Snooker Championship title, whilst 1989 was the last world final reached by Davis. In his 1989 book
Snooker: Records, Facts and Champions, Ian Morrison wrote "Don't let the scoreline lead you to believe that Parrott did not do justice to the occasion. But simply, no man could have lived with Davis the way he played at the Crucible in 1989." Snooker historian
Clive Everton, who played in the qualifying rounds of the tournament, reflected in 2012 that after the 1989 tournament, despite Davis having lost the 1985 and 1986 championship finals, "such was his dominance that it would have been impossible to predict with confidence that [Davis] would never win the title again." Authors Luke Williams and Paul Gadsby claimed that "It is ironic, then, that in the wake of his most dominant World Championship triumph, Davis's career almost immediately headed into decline," and that Davis's losses to Hendry in the finals of the
1989 UK Championship and the
1990 UK Championship "symbolised a monumental power shift in the game." == Main draw ==