Qualifying The qualifying competition was held in three stages at Pontin's, Prestatyn Sands. The first stage, for amateurs and non-Tour professionals, was played at Pontin's, Prestatyn Sands, on 11 January 2004.
Mike Hallett came from 14 down against Craig Roper in the third round of the first stage and from 04 behind against Pete Roscoe in the fifth round, winning both matches 54. Walker then recorded wins against Gary Thomson,
Alfie Burden,
Barry Hawkins and
Mark Selby to qualify. Preece then lost to
David Finbow, who in turn was defeated by
Brian Morgan.
Joe Swail eliminated Morgan in the final round to qualify. Playing
Stephen Maguire in the last round,
Robin Hull withdrew after a vestibular disorder made him dizzy when playing, and so Maguire qualified. earned a 63 lead in the first , with five breaks over 50, including a century break of 105 in the second frame. Dale responded and won three frames to draw level at 77. Williams, however, clinched victory with the last three frames, which included a . "It's not the best preparation you can have, but if you're happy off the table you can carry that over," Williams commented after the match with regard to his fatherhood. Six seeded players lost in the first round—
Stephen Lee,
Quinten Hann,
Steve Davis,
Peter Ebdon,
Ken Doherty and
Jimmy White. Although Lee fell 36 behind Walker, he managed to win three of the first four frames of the evening session to reduce the gap to a single frame. Walker, nonetheless, clinched the twelfth frame, which lasted 53 minutes, and ended up winning the match 107. Lee claimed afterwards that the defeat was the summary of "a terrible season" for him. Hicks advanced into the second round by beating Hann 104. Having already been warned for his language by referee
Lawrie Annandale in the eleventh frame, he confronted Hicks once the match had ended and he admitted to having told him "You're short, bald and always will be, and can have me outside whenever you want". Hicks pointed out to him that he was likely to drop out of the top 16 as a result of the loss. The six-time champion Davis lost to Hamilton 710. Doherty, the
1997 winner, was beaten by two-time semi-finalist Swail 610. Doherty's defeat was the first time he had lost in round one since the
1995 event, and had since been champion once, finalist twice and three times a quarter-finalist. Ebdon played McCulloch, who was making his third-ever appearance at the Crucible, having previously qualified for the
1999 and
2003 events. The first session, which featured a 48-minutes-long frame, was shared at 44, and the balance was not broken after eight more frames, with a score of 88. McCulloch, whose and were praised by his rival, went on to win two frames and sealed the first Crucible victory in his career. He faced White, recent
European Open runner-up and
Players Championship winner,
(pictured in 2014) was a debutant at the Crucible and lost to
John Higgins in the having led 97. Day and Maguire were the only debutants at the Crucible and both lost in the opening round. Day made three century breaks in his match, the first to do so on his debut at the World Championship. He put himself 97 ahead with breaks of 111, 68, 54, 128, 60, 112, 71 and 57 over the
1998 champion
John Higgins. Higgins, however, forced a with a 68 and took the match with a result of 6850 in the last frame. Maguire, who was 23 and the youngest of the 32 players who made it to this stage of the tournament, reached the main draw after a season in which he had won his first ranking tournament defeating White in the European Open final. Facing the
2001 champion
Ronnie O'Sullivan in the first round, Maguire made a 121 to go 32 ahead and had a chance to double the lead in the next frame, but he ended up losing 610 in a match that featured a combined three centuries between both players. O'Sullivan made gestures using "middle and index fingers" and "rubbing motions" that "could have been interpreted as offensive" according to snooker commentator and historian
Clive Everton. O'Sullivan also conceded a frame while he could still mathematically win, something "widely regarded as inappropriate". Small was 17 down to fellow Scotsman
Alan McManus when he was forced to retire from the match due to pain from a degenerative spinal disease, a condition which would later force him to retire from the game permanently. McManus said after the match that he was "dumbstruck" by his rival pulling out.
Joe Perry and Milkins, who were playing in the main stage for the fourth and third time respectively, met in the opening round. Although Perry came out 63 on top at the end of the first session, Milkins reduced the deficit to two frames. Perry then won three frames to put himself one away from victory at 94. Milkins, however, replied with breaks of up to 51 and 65, and Perry said he was beginning to "worry" when it got to 97, but managed to close out the match. In a tactical match,
Matthew Stevens, a finalist in
2000, overcame a two-frame deficit against Wattana and won the last five frames to advance into the second round.
Paul Hunter, who had lost the
Players Championship final against White two weeks earlier, Seven-time champion
Stephen Hendry raced into an 81 lead against Pettman in the first session, and wrapped up the match with two more frames once the match was resumed, with a 117 century. In a match that only featured six breaks over fifty,
Graeme Dott defeated King in the decider 109. "It was actually getting embarrassing how bad the game was," he said afterwards.
Second round (pictured in 2016) had never played in the second round before. He led seven-time champion
Stephen Hendry 119, but ended up losing 1213. The second round of the event was played as the best of 25 frames, held over three sessions, between 22 and 26 April. Hunter and Stevens met in the last 16 for the second consecutive year. Stevens had been defeated 613 the previous year, and found himself two frames behind at 1012 before Hunter missed a in the 23rd frame which would have given him the match. Stevens took all three remaining frames to win the match 1312. Perry made a break of 145 in his match against the defending champion Williams, which remained as the highest break of the tournament. Having manufactured a 106 lead, Perry lost five frames on the trot and let Williams in front for the first time in the match at 1011. Perry put together breaks of 55, 53 and 82 to win 1311 and advance into the quarter-finals of the World Championship for the first time in his career. Gray took victory over Walker with a result of 135 and also made his first appearance in the quarter-finals. "It was not my greatest performance," Gray highlighted despite the result and urged himself to score more heavily the next day. Dott got off to a good start in his match against Higgins and established a 51 advantage that got reduced to 53 by the end of the first session. Going into the last session, Dott led 127 before Higgins made breaks of 89 and 130 and won another one to reduce the deficit to only a couple of frames. Dott won the match with a 62 break, and said he had "never seen John [Higgins] play as badly as that". O'Sullivan faced
1995 semi-finalist Hicks, who had not managed to get past the first round of the event since that year. Scores were level going into the final session, but O'Sullivan won a match in which he compiled five century breaks. McManus won the first frame against McCulloch, who then took seven in a row with breaks of 106, 64, 76, 62, 113, 82 and 84, and moved within two of victory ahead of the evening session. They played only three frames in the third session as McCulloch progressed to the quarter-finals for the first time in his career.
Quarter-finals (pictured in 2014) reached the semi-finals for the first time, defeating
David Gray 137. The quarter-finals were played as the best of 25 frames held over three sessions, on 27 and 28 April. O'Sullivan's match was regarded by snooker reporter
Clive Everton writing for
The Guardian as a "performance of stunning virtuosity". Hendry defeated McCulloch also 133 with a . In setting up a semi-final duel with O'Sullivan, he made two centuries and nine half-centuries. Perry, contesting his first ever quarter-final, Dott had never reached this stage of the tournament before either, and displayed what he thought was "a rubbish game", but defeated Gray 137, closing out the match with a break of 62. "You watch the Crucible when it gets to one table as a kid, and wonder what it would be like to play there," he said afterwards.
Semi-finals (pictured in 2011) suffered a 417 defeat against
Ronnie O'Sullivan, the biggest in history for a World Championship semi-final match. The semi-finals were played as the best of 33 frames, held over four sessions, between 29 April and 1 May. Several breaks over 80 and a 117 gave O'Sullivan a clear advantage over Hendry in the two first sessions, where he led 62 and 133, respectively. The match ended 174 and with a session to spare, thanks to breaks of 93 and 79 by O'Sullivan, whose victory against Hendry was the biggest ever for a semi-final of the tournament. The previous largest was Hendry's 164 win over
Terry Griffiths in
1992. In the other semi-final, Dott faced Stevens. Stevens had previously reached this stage of the tournament on four occasions, whilst it was Dott's first time. Dott was also required to reach the final to retain his place in the top 16 in the world rankings.
Final (pictured in 2012) won his second
World Championship, defeating Dott 188 in the final. The final of the event was played on 2 and 3 May as a best-of-35-frames match, held over four sessions, between Dott and O'Sullivan. O'Sullivan (seeded third) was contesting his second World Championship final, having won his previous one in
2001 against Higgins, while it was the first one for Dott (seeded thirteenth). Dott had till that point reached two ranking finals—those of the
1999 Scottish Open and the
2001 British Open—but had come short to both Hendry and Higgins. Dott made a strong start to the match and compiled breaks of 71, 77, 64 and 60 to move 5–0 clear, but O'Sullivan responded with a 100-point century break and then won two more to put himself only two behind at the end of the first session. In the second session, played in the evening, O'Sullivan moved from two frames down to two ahead by the conclusion, and in the third session the following afternoon he won all frames save one—in which Dott compiled a 106 century. O'Sullivan only needed two frames and twenty minutes in the evening to seal his second world title. and the fourth largest in the history of the tournament, subsequently equalled by O'Sullivan himself against Carter in
2008 and
Kyren Wilson in
2020. Afterwards, Dott conceded that the newly crowned champion could be regarded as "the greatest of all time" and expressed elation over having avoided losing the final with a session to spare. "It could have been worse," he stated in the post-match interview. O'Sullivan said he had felt at all times throughout the seventeen days that he would go on to win the tournament and thanked six-time world champion
Ray Reardon for his advice, for he had recently begun to work alongside him on improving his overall game. He dedicated the victory to his father, who was at prison at the time, and said there was "more to come". ==Main draw==