1996 World Snooker Championship

Tournament summary

• In the first round, Alain Robidoux accused Ronnie O'Sullivan of showing him disrespect by playing left-handed for most of one of their, and refused to shake hands with O'Sullivan when the match ended. O'Sullivan's reaction to this was to claim that "I'm better with my left hand than he was with his right."
• O'Sullivan received a two-year suspended ban and a £20,000 fine, plus another £10,000 to be donated to charity, for an alleged assault on an official.
• Terry Griffiths won his first round match for the 14th time in a row, a record that was beaten in 2018 by Ronnie O'Sullivan. In the second round, Griffiths lost 8–13 against Steve Davis, his seventh loss in seven matches against Davis at the Crucible.
• O'Sullivan's 13–4 victory over Tony Drago in the second round set the record for the fastest best-of-25-frames match in a professional tournament at just 167 minutes and 33 seconds.
• The final is the only time in Crucible history that the world champion did not take the last shot of the championship. Needing snookers, Peter Ebdon missed a shot and left Stephen Hendry a simple pot, but decided to concede the match rather than let Hendry continue.
• This was Hendry's fifth consecutive title, a record for the modern era.

Prize fund

• Winner: £200,000
• Runner-up: £120,000
• Semi-final: £60,000
• Quarter-final: £30,500
• Last 16: £16,000
• Last 32: £9,000
• Highest break: £17,000
• Maximum break: £147,000
• Total: £1,200,000

  Main draw

Century breaks

• 144, 138, 137, 123, 109, 107, 100, 100 Peter Ebdon
• 144, 115 Tony Drago
• 139, 126, 120, 106, 103, 102, 102, 101, 100 Ronnie O'Sullivan
• 137, 130, 104, 101 John Higgins
• 135, 125, 121, 118, 113, 110, 108, 106, 105, 104, 104 Stephen Hendry
• 129 Jason Ferguson
• 125 Alan McManus
• 123, 120, 101 Dave Harold
• 116, 105, 104, 103 Steve Davis
• 115 Anthony Hamilton
• 110 Darren Morgan
• 109 Ken Doherty
• 103 Euan Henderson
• 100 Jimmy White