Lockdown laws may have left plenty of empty seats at the Crucible but that will not stop the 2020 World Championship going down as one of the most competitive in history.
Here, the PA news agency picks out five of the most memorable moments from the Championships which concluded with Ronnie O'Sullivan claiming his sixth world snooker title.
Blue moon
Wow... what an end.
Anthony McGill is through to the second round of the @Betfred World Championship after a decider that went down to the wire.
Northern Ireland or Wales up next for the Scotsman #ilovesnooker pic.twitter.com/HicgZiP7Qm
— World Snooker Tour (@WeAreWST) August 3, 2020
Anthony McGill drilled home a brilliant long blue to hold off a spirited fightback from Jack Lisowski and win his first round match in a deciding frame. The Scot was left with the winner-takes-all long-ranger over the top-right pocket – and brilliantly rammed it home to sink the 13th seed.
McMaximum man
For all his success at the Crucible, a maximum had always eluded four-time champion John Higgins, until the second session of his second round match against Kurt Maflin. Higgins' nerveless knock earned him plenty of canned applause – but he still went on to suffer a shock 13-11 defeat.
One vision
Referee Jan Verhaas had to separate McGill and Jamie Clarke midway through their quarter-final after McGill accused Clarke of getting into his line of vision. The enmity rumbled on, with Clarke tweeting "You want to dance, let's dance" at the mid-session interval – an intervention McGill described as "pretty childish".
Eight state
The final frame of McGill's semi-final against Kyren Wilson will go down as one of the most extraordinary in snooker history. The frame swung on a remarkable passage in which the Scot missed the same snooker eight times in succession, handing the advantage to Wilson – who promptly went in-off.
In the pink
Ronnie O'Sullivan's frustration showed in the 30th frame of his tense last-four clash with Mark Selby. Faced with a near-snooker on the pink, O'Sullivan smashed the balls around the table and effectively handed Selby the frame. His hopes of a sixth world title appeared to have exploded – but he produced peerless snooker in the next two frames, and went on to win the match.
