Due to take place at the English Institute for Sport from April 8 to 15, the qualifying rounds for this year’s World Championship will again be contested by main tour players not ranked inside of the world’s top 16 following this month’s Tour Championship.

They will be joined by 16 elite amateur players to complete the draw.

The qualifying tournament will be run under a new format which will see those players seeded 17th to 48th needing to win two matches to join the world’s top 16 at the iconic Crucible Theatre.

Remaining players will be required to win up to four matches to play on snooker’s greatest stage.

The 16 amateur players selected by the WPBSA have each earned their places on the basis of their performances at international amateur events, including this year’s World Snooker Federation (WSF) tournaments and Challenge Tour.

Among them is England’s Ashley Hugill, the WSF Open champion and the Challenge Tour’s number one ranked player, and China’s Gao Yang, the WSF Junior Open champion.

Both Hugill and Gao are set to join the WST for the 2020-2021 season.

Also selected by the WPBSA are Germany’s Lukas Kleckers, Ukraine’s Iuilan Boiko, England’s Sean Maddocks and Reanne Evans, Scotland’s Dean Young, Hong Kong’s Ng On-yee, Thailand’s Nutcharut Wongharuthai, Ireland’s Aaron Hill and Ross Bulman, New Zealand’s Cody Turner, and China’s Wu Yize.

The three other places will be taken up by the Saudi Arabian champion/number one, the Challenge Tour play-off winner and the European Under-21 Championship winner.

All players selected will appear subject to acceptance of their place and any travel restrictions in place.

Any replacement players will be selected from a reserve list to include performances at WSF and Challenge Tour events.