The 2006 World Snooker Championship (officially the 2006 888.com World Snooker Championship) was a professional snooker tournament. It was held at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. It was the 30th consecutive year that the World Snooker Championship was staged at the venue. It started on 15 April 2006 and was scheduled to finish on 1 May 2006, but continued into the early hours of 2 May. The sixth and final ranking tournament of the 2005–06 snooker season, it was organised by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association and sponsored for the first time by online casino 888.com. The total prize fund was £896,240, of which the winner received £200,000.

The qualifying rounds took place from 8 to 13 January and from 14 to 15 March 2006 at Pontin's, in Prestatyn, Wales. The 16 qualifiers and the top 16 players from the snooker world rankings reached the tournament's main stage at the Crucible. Shaun Murphy was the defending champion, having defeated Matthew Stevens 18–16 in the 2005 final. He lost in the quarter-finals against eventual runner-up Peter Ebdon and became another world champion who fell to the Crucible curse and could not defend his first world title.

There was just one debutant at the event for the first time - Barry Hawkins. Graeme Dott defeated Ebdon 18–14 in the final. Ending at 12:52 a.m. BST, it surpassed the 1985 final between Dennis Taylor and Steve Davis as the latest finish for a World Championship final. A total of 46 century breaks were compiled during the event's main stage, the highest being a 140 made by Ronnie O'Sullivan. Another 52 century breaks were made during the qualifying rounds.

The inaugural 1927 World Snooker Championship, then known as the Professional Championship of Snooker, took place at various venues in England between November 1926 and May 1927. Joe Davis won the final—held at Camkin's Hall in Birmingham from 9 to 12 May 1927—and went on to win the tournament 15 consecutive times before retiring undefeated after the 1946 edition (no tournaments were held from 1941 to 1945 because of World War II). The tournament went into abeyance after only two players contested the 1952 edition, due to a dispute between the Professional Billiards Players' Association (PBPA) and the Billiards Association and Control Council (BACC). The PBPA established an alternative tournament, the World Professional Match-play Championship, of which the six editions held between 1952 and 1957 are retroactively regarded as legitimate continuations of the World Snooker Championship. However, due to waning public interest in snooker during the post-war era, that tournament was also discontinued, and the world title was uncontested between 1958 and 1963.

Then-professional player Rex Williams was instrumental in reviving the World Snooker Championship on a challenge basis in 1964. John Pulman, winner of the 1957 World Professional Match-play Championship, defended the world title across seven challenge matches between 1964 and 1968. The World Snooker Championship reverted to an annual knockout tournament for the 1969 edition, marking the beginning of the championship's "modern era". The 1977 edition was the first staged at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, where it has remained since. The most successful players in the modern era was Stephen Hendry, having won the title seven times. Hendry was also the tournament's youngest winner, having captured his first title at the 1990 event, aged 21 years and 106 days. Ray Reardon became the oldest winner when he secured his sixth title at the 1978 event, aged 45 years and 203 days.

English player Shaun Murphy won his first world title at the 2005 championship, defeating Welsh player Matthew Stevens 18–16 in the final. Organised by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, the 2006 tournament was sponsored by online casino 888.com. Following new EU and UK legislation banning tobacco advertising, it could not be sponsored by Embassy, as had been the case for the previous three decades. In January 2006, World Snooker – the sport's governing body – announced that the online casino 888.com would be the new sponsors of the event for the next five years. However, this decision led to conflict with some players who lost income from their own personal sponsors, who were rival firms of 888.com. Concerns were expressed among the sport's elite at the decrease in prize money and in the number of ranking events (down to six for the 2005–06 season) since the loss of tobacco sponsorship. For the 2006 World Championship, the winner's cheque was down 20% on what it was in 2005.

The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below:

The first round was played between 15 and 20 April as the best of 19 frames played over two sessions. The defending champion, Shaun Murphy, was afflicted with a chest infection, but still defeated Thai player James Wattana 10–4. Three former world champions lost their first round matches. In his match against seven-time champion Stephen Hendry, Nigel Bond potted the black ball for what would have been a win in the deciding frame, but the cue ball dropped in the right-hand middle pocket, which meant that the frame was tied at 48–48 due to the seven penalty points. Bond still won the match on the re-spotted black. This was the first time that a World Championship match was decided on a re-spotted black.