China's Daqing to host snooker's International Championship

China's northeastern city Daqing will host the International Championship, one of the top snooker tournaments, from Oct. 25 to Nov. 1.

The International Championship is the second richest snooker event only after the World Championships, with total prize money of 657,000 pounds and the winner to collect 125,000 pounds.

The event will be held at the Baihu Media Broadcasting Centre in Daqing.

With the sport getting more and more popular in China, the International Championship has been tipped to become a tournament to replace the World Championship, held in Sheffield each year.

Ricky Walden won the title last year by beating Mark Allen 10-7 in the final. The event was first staged in 2012 in Chengdu, won by Judd Trump in that year and Ding Junhui in 2013.

The qualifying round will be staged in Barnsley from Sept. 30 to Oct. 3, with all players needing to win one match to go through to the last 64 at the venue. However the defending champion (Walden), World Champion (Stuart Bingham) and the top two Chinese players will have their matches held over to Daqing.

Miles Pearce, World Snooker's Chief Representative in China, said: "The World Snooker International Championship has rapidly become one of the most prestigious tournaments on the calendar and will be contested by an extremely strong field."

The draw will be announced after the entry deadline of Sept. 16. Endi