Crucible curse
The "Crucible curse" is a quip in professional snooker, referring to the fact that no first-time winner of the World Snooker Championship has retained the title since the tournament moved to Sheffield's Crucible Theatre in 1977. Beginning with the 1979 champion Terry Griffiths, who lost in the second round of the 1980 event, 20 first-time world champions have failed to defend their titles, although Joe Johnson and Ken Doherty made it to the final the year after their maiden victories. Most recently, the 2024 champion Kyren Wilson lost in the first round of the 2025 World Snooker Championship. Zhao Xintong, first-time winner of the 2025 event, can attempt to break the Curse in the 2026.
Several world champions successfully defended their first title in the pre-Crucible era; the last to do so was John Pulman in 1964.
The curse
The first-time world champions listed below all experienced the "Crucible curse", as they did not successfully defend their title at the following year's World Championship.| Year | Defending champion | Progress | Result | Opponent | Ref |
| 1980 |  Terry Griffiths|WALefn|Griffiths, along with the other top 8 seeds, received a bye in the first round, thus the second round was his first match.Pre-CrucibleOut of all the first-time world snooker champions, only three retained their title at the next World Championship: Joe Davis in 1928, his brother Fred Davis in 1949, and John Pulman at his first challenge match in 1964. No player in the modern era has successfully defended a first world title, even before the tournament was staged at the Crucible Theatre.John Spencer, Ray Reardon and Alex Higgins won the World Championship for the first time before the event was moved to the Crucible in 1977, and failed to retain the title the following year. All three players subsequently won the championship at the Crucible for the first time, but then fell to the "curse" when they failed to successfully defend the title the following year. |