Tournament Summary
- Like John Spencer in 1978, Terry Griffiths in 1980 and Steve Davis in 1982, defending champion Dennis Taylor fell to the Crucible curse, and lost his opening match 6–10 against Mike Hallett.
- Johnson was a 150–1 outsider at the start of the championship, as he never won a tournament in his seven year career. He defeated Dave Martin in the first round and Hallett in the second. In the quarter-finals he overturned a 9–12 deficit to defeat Griffiths 13–12; before he beat Tony Knowles 16–8 in the semi-finals. After the first days play ended at 8–8, Johnson took a 13–11 lead before the last session of the match. Johnson than won five of the last six frames to win the match 18–12 for his first world title.
- Future world champion and world No. 1 Stephen Hendry made his debut losing 8–10 to Willie Thorne. It also made him the youngest player in the championship's history at the age of 17 years and 3 months. Another debutant in 1986 was Danny Fowler, who lost 2–10 to Terry Griffiths.
- Three-time world champion John Spencer made his final appearance at the tournament, losing 7–10 to Alex Higgins.
Read more about this topic: 1986 World Snooker Championship
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