Notable moments

• The 1983 championship is remembered for the first-ever 147 maximum break at a World Snooker Championship
  World Snooker Championship
  The World Snooker Championship is the leading professional snooker tournament in terms of both prize money and ranking points. The first championship was held in 1927; since 1977, it has been played at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, England...
  
  . Canada's Cliff Thorburn
  Cliff Thorburn
  Clifford Charles Devlin Thorburn CM, known as Cliff Thorburn is a retired professional Canadian snooker player...
  
   achieved it at the start of his second round against Terry Griffiths
  Terry Griffiths
  Terrence "Terry" Griffiths OBE is a retired Welsh snooker player and current snooker coach and pundit. He won the World Championship in 1979 at the first attempt, and reached the 1988 final. He also won the Masters in 1980 and the UK Championship in 1982, making him one of seven players to have...
  
  . Fellow countryman Bill Werbeniuk stopped playing, on the next table, in order to watch Thorburn's closing shots. BBC commentator Jack Karnehm
  Jack Karnehm
  Jack Karnehm was a British snooker commentator, who was regularly heard on BBC television from 1978 until 1993, and a former amateur world champion and professional national champion at the game of English billiards.karnehmwas also a profesional snooker and billiards player.Besides his...
  
  , as Thorburn was lining up his shot on the last black, said 'Good luck, mate'. The final of the match lasted more than seven hours and the match finished at 3:51 am.

• Thorburn then played Kirk Stevens
  Kirk Stevens
  Kirk Stevens is a Canadian professional snooker player.Stevens started playing young, achieving his first aged just 12. He turned professional aged 20, and reached the semi-finals of the World Championship aged 21...
  
   in the quarter-final, which he won 13–12; this was also a long match, finishing at 2:12 am. Thorburn's semi-final victory over Tony Knowles
  Tony Knowles (snooker player)
  Anthony Knowles is an English professional snooker player. He was a three times semi-finalist in the World Professional Snooker Championship in the 1980s.-Career:...
  
  , 16–15, came at 12:45 am. In the final, Thorburn, having played his last three matches in the early hours, lost to Steve Davis
  Steve Davis
  Steve Davis, OBE is an English professional snooker player. He has won more professional titles in the sport than any other player, including six World Championships during the 1980s, when he was the world number one for seven years and became the sport's first millionaire...
  
   6–18 with a , the largest-margin of defeat in professional snooker at that time. Thorburn considered withdrawing from the tournament and returning to Canada halfway through the Griffiths match, because his wife had suffered a miscarriage.

• There were eighteen during the 1983 Championship, a new record which stood until 1986. The of the event was a 147 by Cliff Thorburn
  Cliff Thorburn
  Clifford Charles Devlin Thorburn CM, known as Cliff Thorburn is a retired professional Canadian snooker player...
  
  , the first 147 at the Crucible
  Crucible Theatre
  The Crucible Theatre is a theatre built in 1971 and located in the city centre of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. As well as theatrical performances, it is home to the most important event in professional snooker, the World Snooker Championship....
  
  .

Prize money

Main draw