The first thing that might come to your mind when you hear the terms “billiards and snooker” is what makes these games different from one another. Basically speaking, both games are very similar, with the snooker game being a derivative of the billiard game.
However, there are two big differences. The 5 world snooker championship 2023 first is that while billiards is played with only two players, snooker can have multiple players. The second is that while the pool billiards has only three balls, snooker is played with as many as 22 balls: 15 red, 1 white, which is the cue ball, and 6 colored.
The origin of snooker as a game can be traced to India, during the 19th Century when the British were occupying the territory. At that time, the army officers wanted a game where more people could play, so there would be more fun and less time waiting for a turn.
Originally, there were two derivative games from billiards. One was called the “life pool” and the second was called the “black pool.” Combined together these two games gave birth to a new game called snooker, played on a snooker table.
The game of snooker and the snooker player gradually disconnected itself from its roots; billiards. There was no more mention of billiards and snooker being one game. However, after the retirement of Joe Davis, the game of snooker faded into oblivion until the late 70s, when the BBC televised the 1978 World Snooker Championship.
The transition to television infused a new life into this game and it became popular not only in Europe, but throughout the world as well. Today, snooker is enthusiastically played by people in China and US, besides being one of the most popular games in the UK. There is more professionalism and passion in playing this game today than ever before in the past.
When people speak about billiards and snooker, remember the latter is an offshoot of the former. The deviation from the original game was basically made to accommodate more players into the game. The result was a new game that followed the same rules, yet had an entity of its own. Today, this game is a great favorite throughout the world.