Open event

An Open event in sports terminology refers to a sporting event or game tournament that is open to contestants regardless of their professional or amateur status, age, ability, gender, sex, or other categorisation. In many sports, preliminary qualifying events, open to all entrants, are held to successively reduce the field to a manageable number for participation in a final championship event, which itself may involve elimination rounds (tournaments).

Seven out of twelve ranking events are currently "open;" including the Welsh Open, World Open, China Open and the Thailand Open. There are five ranking events on the current snooker calendar which are not open, the International Championship, Shanghai Masters, German Masters, UK Championship and the World Snooker Championship.