Target sports
Snooker
Snooker is a cue sport on a large six-pocket table, combining exact potting with sophisticated cue-ball positioning and defensive safety play. The alternating red-and-color sequence creates both scoring opportunities and tactical traps.
At a glance
- Fifteen reds begin in a triangle, with six colors on fixed spots.
- A maximum standard break is 147.
- A match contains an agreed odd number of frames.
Player profile. Players need fine cue control, visual geometry, steady posture, strategic memory, emotional composure, and concentration across long matches. Potting skill must be paired with control of the next angle; leaving the cue ball hidden can be more valuable than attempting a difficult pot. Long matches also test arithmetic and emotional patience.
Where it happens
Full-size table approximately 12 ft by 6 ft (3.66 m by 1.83 m) with six pockets, baulk line and D, spots, cushions, and slate bed. The 12 by 6 ft slate table places fifteen reds in a triangle and six colors on fixed spots beyond the baulk line and D. Its size makes cue-ball travel and cushion control central to every break.
- Full-size table approximately 12 ft by 6 ft (3.66 m by 1.83 m) with six pockets, baulk line and D, spots, cushions, and slate bed. The 12 by 6 ft slate table places fifteen reds in a triangle and six colors on fixed spots beyond the baulk line and D. Its size makes cue-ball travel and cushion control central to every break.
What you need
- cue
- white cue ball
- 15 reds
- six colored balls
- chalk
- rest, spider, and extensions
- table and triangle
How to play
- Break from the D.
- Alternate potting a red and then a nominated color.
- After all reds, pot colors in ascending value.
- Win the frame by points or concession.
The essential rules
- A red is the first ball on until reds are exhausted.
- After a red, the striker nominates and attempts a color.
- A potted color is respotted while reds remain.
- After the final red sequence, colors are taken yellow through black.
- The cue ball must contact a legal ball on first.
- A foul awards points to the opponent.
- A miss may require the shot to be replayed under referee judgment.
- A ball touching a cushion or entering a pocket follows the stated outcome.
- Only the cue tip may strike the cue ball legally.
- The higher score wins the frame.
How the result is decided
Reds score one; colors score two through seven. Break totals plus penalty points form the frame score. A red begins each sequence for one point, followed by a nominated color that is respotted while reds remain. After the last red, colors are taken in rising order, so the table’s scoring structure changes during the frame.
Fouls and penalties
- wrong ball first
- cue ball potted
- ball off table
- touching ball
- push shot
- double hit
- feet off floor
- failing to hit a ball on
Techniques
- stance and bridge
- straight cueing
- topspin
- backspin
- sidespin
- pot
- safety
- break-building positional shot
Tactics
- develop reds
- control cue-ball angle
- choose a safety over a low-percentage pot
- use baulk colors
- build around black
- lay a snooker
Disciplines and variants
- individual snooker
- six-red snooker
Competition landscape
- World Snooker Championship
- UK Championship
- Masters
Records in the reference
No stable record table is published here. Records change; use the current governing-body source before acting.
How the sport developed
Snooker developed from British cue games in nineteenth-century India and later became a major professional television sport. British officers combined older cue games in nineteenth-century India, producing a new red-and-color sequence. Professional broadcasting later made the large table and long tactical frames central to the sport’s identity.
- The name is linked to a military slang term used when the game was devised.
Play it in India
Caution · No pathway, recognised federation or public facility for this sport was found in India in KhelPath's current sources. You can learn the sport here; you may not be able to practise it competitively in India today. This is not evidence that the sport is absent from India; it is a gap in current public evidence.
- Organisation reference
- No dated organisation reference found
- Recognition state
- Not established by the current MYAS snapshot
- SAI NCOE discipline rows
- No matching centre row found
- Khelo India discipline
- Not established
- Olympic programme
- Not a current core-programme sport
- India Olympic medals
- No sport-level total in current sources
Evidence and currency
This is an original KhelPath explainer assembled from editorial research. It is orientation, not an authoritative rulebook.
Current governing-body rules link: not yet verified.