The draws for the three events which make up the 2017 World Championship (World Open, World Championship (Short Format) and World Championship (Long Format)) are made to ensure the maximum variety of opponents for all players whilst adhering as closely as possible to the seeding positions as determined by the World Rankings.
The three draws are performed in the reverse order to which they are played.
Firstly the long-format World Championship draw is performed strictly according to the seeding positions taken from the World Rankings, with the exception that the defending champion is seeded no.1. All players in the tournament are seeded. If necessary some minor adjustments are then made to ensure that countries are separated as evenly as possible in the groups.
The short-format World Championship draw is then performed with as few adjustments to the long-format draw as possible to ensure players are close to their original seeding positions whilst avoiding playing any of the same players twice. Again, countries are separated as much as possible and the defending champion is seeded no.1.
Finally, the World Open (Jim Williamson) draw is made also ensuring no player plays the same player as they have drawn in the two World Championship events, also separating countries and staying as close as possible to the seeding positions. Only two players per group are seeded in this tournament and the defending champion is seeded no. 1.
The result of this procedure is that no player will play the same player twice in the group stages across all three tournaments and will play as few players from their own country as is mathematically possible.
Seeding for all tournaments part of the World Championship are based on the final World Ranking list of the preceding season which can be viewed here: 2016/17 World Rankings.
We hope you understand the challenges presented by this process and accept that it is in place in the best interests of all players in all competitions.
Please note that if a player withdraws once this process is complete and is replaced by another player it may not be possible to adhere to the same draw criteria for the replacement player.