For the 1976–77 snooker season, players' performances in the previous three World Snooker Championships (1974, 1975, and 1976) contributed to their ranking points total. For each of the three years, the World Champion was awarded five points, the runner-up received four, losing semi-finalists got three, players eliminated in the quarter-finals gained two, and losers in the last-16 round received a single point.[3] If players were level on points, then those gained in the most recent event determined positioning. If this was still equal, then the losing margin on frames was taken into account.[1]
Ray Reardon, having won the championship in each of the three years considered, was ranked first, with the maximum possible 15 points, followed by Alex Higgins, the 1976 runner-up, on nine points.[1] The eight-highest ranked players were placed directly into the last-16 round of the 1977 World Snooker Championship,[4] whilst all other entrants were placed in a qualifying competition to produce the eight players to play the exempted seeds.[5]
The same points system, based on results from 1973, 1974 and 1975, had been used to calculate the eight top seeds for the 1976 World Championship. Reardon had topped that list with 15 points, followed by Eddie Charlton on nine, and Higgins with eight.[6]
The professional world rankings for the snooker players on the main tour in the 1976–77 season are listed below. Points gained in each of the three World Snooker Championships are shown, with the total number of points given in the last column. A "–" symbol indicates that the player did not participate in that year's championship.[1][7]
