WST has now published the draw and qualifiers format for the 2023 International Championship
International Championship Draw
The International Championship returns to the calendar for the first time since 2019, with the first round draw as well as the match schedule for the qualifying round now available.
CLICK HERE FOR THE QUALIFIERS FORMAT
The qualifying round will run from September 18-23 in Sheffield, followed by the final stages in Tianjin City, China from November 5-12.
The International Championship was first staged in 2012 when Judd Trump lifted the trophy, and he won it again in 2019. In between, Ding Junhui, Ricky Walden, John Higgins, Mark Selby and Mark Allen all held the title.
Trump will get his title defence underway against the winner of a match between two local wild cards, with those matches to take place at the final venue. Matches involving the other two local wild cards will also be held over to Tianjin, as well as:
Ronnie O’Sullivan v Ken Doherty
Zhou Yuelong v Martin O’Donnell
Ding Junhui v Ian Burns
Luca Brecel v Ahmed Aly ElsayedAll other opening ties will take place at the qualifying round, including:
John Higgins v Manasawin Phetmalaikul
Kyren Wilson v Adam Duffy
Mark Selby v Muhammad Asif
Tian Pengfei v Stephen Hendry
Barry Hawkins v Andrew Pagett
Matthew Selt v Jimmy White
Mark Allen v Ma Hailong
Si Jiahui v Julien LeClercq
Jack Lisowski v He Gouqiang
Neil Robertson v Ryan Thomerson
Shaun Murphy v Andres Petrov
Mark Williams v Rebecca Kenna
Hossein Vafaei v Reanne EvansDetails of how to watch the qualifying rounds will be announced soon.
International Championship prize money:
Winner: £175,000
Runner-up: £75,000
Semi-finals: £33,000
Quarter-finals: £22,000
Last 16: £14,000
Last 32: £9,000
Last 64: £5,000
High break: £5,000
Total: £825,000
Ronnie has exactly the same opponent as for the Wuhan Open, Ken Doherty. Neil Robertson is in the same situation, he gets Ryan Thomerson again. Also, except for minor differences induced by the fact that the events have different defending champions, the top 64 seeds are all in the exact same spot in both draws. Meaning that, should they all win their round one match, from round two those two draws are quasi identical. Is there a strict seeding policy for those Chinese events? Was it always the case? I can’t remember.
Ronnie O'Sullivan 
Notes on missing pros, in draws for upcoming ranking tournaments:
Asjad Iqbal and Dechawat Poomjaeng haven’t entered any of them. These are the only pros to miss the English Open.
Stephen Hendry has skipped the Wuhan Open, but HAS entered the International Championship.
Martin Gould and Fergal O’Brien are only other pros to skip BOTH the Wuhan Open and International Championship. Obviously, they don’t like the idea of travelling to China, but with their provisional end-of-season ranking at #75 for Gould and #95 for O’Brien, that’s a bold strategy to stay on tour.
but draw luck…should participate qualifiers as much as possible. (has to win R1, then they have freedom to withdraw it. Meeting 32 is not a small chance.)
for every event not participated, its proportion has to put in next event. Martin Gould have a chance going R3 but not others…
LOL I was looking at Ronnie’s draw thinking yesterday this tournament had a different name. 🙂