2004 World Snooker Championship

Tournament summary

• Ryan Day was the only debutant this year. Day narrowly lost 9–10 to 1998 champion John Higgins in round one.
• Chris Small was forced to retire from his first round match against Alan McManus due to pain from a degenerative spinal disease. His condition would later force him to retire from the game permanently.
• Andy Hicks reached the second round by beating Quinten Hann in a match memorable for a near punch-up between the two players at the end, triggered by Hicks pointing out to Hann that he was likely to drop out of the top 16 as a result of the loss.
• Barry Pinches reached the last 16 for the first time in his career. defeated Jimmy White 10–8 in a match which overran and had to be completed after other matches. In the second round, he led Stephen Hendry 11–9 before losing a tight match 12–13. The 13-year gap between Pinches' first two Crucible appearances remains an all-time record.
• Six seeded players, Stephen Lee; Hann; Steve Davis; Peter Ebdon; Ken Doherty and Jimmy White, lost in the first round. Lee was defeated 7–10 by Lee Walker and Davis lost to Anthony Hamilton by the same score; 1997 champion Doherty was beaten by two-time semi-finalist Joe Swail 6–10 and Ebdon lost 8–10 against Ian McCulloch.
• Doherty's defeat was the first time he had lost in round one since 1995.
• O'Sullivan won both his quarter-final and semi-final matches with a session to spare; he defeated Hamilton 13–3 in the last eight.
• O'Sullivan's 17–4 against Hendry was the biggest ever semi-final victory, replacing Hendry's 16–4 win over Terry Griffiths in 1992.

  Prize fund

• Winner: £250,000
• Runner-up: £125,000
• Semi-final: £63,200
• Quarter-final: £31,600
• Last 16: £17,600
• Last 32: £12,000
• Last 48: £9,200
• Last 64: £5,720
• Last 80: £4,560
• Last 96: £3,440
• Last 128: £1,000
• Stage one highest break: £2,000
• Stage two highest break: £17,600
• Stage one maximum break: £5,000
• Stage two maximum break: £147,000
• Total: £1,378,920

  Main draw

Qualifying

Century breaks

• 145, 100 Joe Perry
• 132, 125, 102 Paul Hunter
• 131, 130 John Higgins
• 131, 127, 127, 125, 123, 121, 117, 109, 109, 106, 106, 101, 100 Ronnie O'Sullivan
• 128, 125, 122, 115, 113, 111, 109, 104 Matthew Stevens
• 128, 112, 111 Ryan Day
• 127, 119 Steve Davis
• 127, 110 Joe Swail
• 121, 112 Stephen Maguire
• 120 Jimmy White
• 117, 113, 108, 106 Ian McCulloch
• 117, 110, 103 Stephen Hendry
• 117, 106 Graeme Dott
• 116 Andy Hicks
• 115, 111 Barry Pinches
• 109 James Wattana
• 108, 105 Mark Williams
• 103 Alan McManus
• 100 David Gray