"Billiards" redirects here. This article covers the word as an umbrella term for cue sports in general. For specific games known as "billiards" and all other uses of the term, see Billiard (disambiguation).
Cue sports
Engraving of an early billiards game with obstacles, targets, and pockets, from Charles Cotton's 1674 book, The Compleat Gamester
Highest governing body
World Confederation of Billiards Sports
First played
15th-century Europe, with roots in ground billiards
Characteristics
Contact
No
Team members
Single opponents, doubles or teams
Mixed-sex
Yes, sometimes in separate leagues/divisions
Type
Indoor, table
Equipment
Billiard balls, billiard table, cue sticks
Venue
Billiard hall or home billiard room
Presence
Olympic
No
World Games
2001 – present
Cue sports are a wide variety of games of skill played with a cue, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a cloth-covered table bounded by elastic bumpers known as cushions. Cue sports are also collectively referred to as billiards, though this term has more specific connotations in some varieties of English.
Interior view of billiard hall, Toledo, Ohio
There are three major subdivisions of games within cue sports:
Carom billiards, played on tables without pockets, typically ten feet in length, including straight rail, balkline, one-cushion carom, three-cushion billiards, artistic billiards, and four-ball
Pocket billiards (or pool), played on six-pocket tables of seven, eight, nine, or ten-foot length, including among others eight-ball (the world's most widely played cue sport[citation needed]), nine-ball (the dominant professional game), ten-ball, straight pool (the formerly dominant pro game), one-pocket, and bank pool
Snooker, English billiards, and Russian pyramid, played on a large, six-pocket table (dimensions just under 12 ft by 6 ft), all of which are classified separately from pool based on distinct development histories, player culture, rules, and terminology.
Billiards has a long history from its inception in the 15th century, with many mentions in the works of Shakespeare, including the line "let's to billiards" in Antony and Cleopatra (1606–07). Enthusiasts of the sport have included Mozart, Louis XIV of France, Marie Antoinette, Immanuel Kant, Napoleon, Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain, George Washington, Jules Grévy, Charles Dickens, George Armstrong Custer, Theodore Roosevelt, Lewis Carroll, W. C. Fields, Babe Ruth, Bob Hope, and Jackie Gleason.
Cuesports are a wide variety of games of skill played with a cue, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a cloth-covered...
glossary of traditional English-language terms used in the three overarching cuesports disciplines: carom billiards referring to the various carom games played...
Championship. Nicknamed "The Magician", Murphy is noted for his straight cue action and his long potting. Born in Harlow, Essex, and raised in Irthlingborough...
Cuesports techniques (usually more specific, e.g., billiards techniques, snooker techniques) are a vital important aspect of game play in the various...
and pool are two types of cuesports or billiards-family games, which as a general class are played with a stick called a cue which is used to strike billiard...
Cuesports events were contested at the Asian Games starting from the 1998 Games in Bangkok. Billiards and snooker at the Southeast Asian Games Cue sports...
Air hockey Backgammon Beer Pong Carrom Nok Hockey Chess Connect Four Cuesports (a.k.a Billiards) Draughts (a.k.a. checkers) Dominoes Headis Janggi Mahjong...
A cue stick (or simply cue, more specifically billiards cue, pool cue, or snooker cue) is an item of sporting equipment essential to the games of pool...
2024 in sports describes the year's events in world sport. The main highlight for this year is the 2024 Summer Olympic Games and Paralympic Games in Paris...
Cuesports have a long history in India. The game of snooker originated among British Army officers stationed in India in the latter half of the 19th century...
volleyball. Racket sports, such as tennis, table tennis, squash and badminton. Throwing sports, such as dodgeball and bocce. Cuesports, such as pool and...
A billiard ball is a small, hard ball used in cuesports, such as carom billiards, pool, and snooker. The number, type, diameter, color, and pattern of...
players use topspin to keep the cue ball moving, including after it hits other balls. They get top spin by hitting the cue against the top of the ball. In...
Cuesports, including three-cushion billiards, nine-ball (a pool discipline) and snooker, were introduced as World Games sports for men and (in the case...
editor until September 2022. He has authored over twenty books about cuesports since 1972. Everton began commentating on snooker for BBC radio in 1972...
The year of 1870 included challenge matches in the table-top cuesports of pool disciplines and English billiards. The following notable challenge matches...
Cuesports was contested at the Asian Games for the first time at the 1998 Asian Games in Bangkok, Thailand between 6 and 19 December 1998. The competition...
original on 20 November 2017. Retrieved 18 February 2019. "Junaid Ahmed". CueSports India. Archived from the original on 29 August 2023. Retrieved 7 August...
Cuesports at the 2010 Asian Games was held in Asian Games Town Gymnasium, Guangzhou, China from November 13 to 20, 2010. A total of 191 athletes from...
club cricketer. In cuesports, players can reach farther across the table if they are able to play with either hand, since the cue must either be placed...
Under-21 Snooker Championship 2009". CueSports India. Retrieved 19 May 2014. "Snooker (Men) Individual". CueSports India. Retrieved 19 May 2014. "World...
Snooker (pronounced UK: /ˈsnuːkər/ SNOO-kər, US: /ˈsnʊkər/ SNUUK-ər) is a cue sport played on a rectangular billiards table covered with a green cloth...
first 5 minutes and 15 seconds for the last 5 minutes. Failure to strike the cue ball within the time allowed results in a minimum 5 points penalty or the...
This is a list of professional sports – that is, sports (and, more broadly, non-sport games subject to organized competition) that support one or more...
surrounding table-top cuesports. These events include snooker, pool disciplines and billiards. Whilst these are traditionally singles sports, some matches and...
and competing in other tournaments in the city. He became interested in cuesports after his father opened a pool club dedicated to Chinese eight-ball. Si...
when a competitor cannot continue without endangering his health. In cuesports, such as billiards and snooker, matches are presided over by a referee...
between 1962 and 1977, 1999-2003 and since 2008. Cuesports also known as Billiards Sports or Pool Sports are popular in Asia particularly in East and South...
Global Information
