The United States players have arrived in the Latvian city of Daugavpils in time for today's opening ceremony of this year's International Billiards & Snooker Federation (IBSF) World Snooker Championships.

Play will get underway at the Olympic Center sports complex tomorrow at 10am local time (midnight Pacific Time in the United States / 8am GMT) where twenty snooker tables, provided by the official IBSF supplier Shender, have been setup, all covered in cloth manufactured by Strachan and played on using Aramith Tournament Champion snooker balls.

The match schedule for the Championships has been published and United States players Ahmed Aly Elsayed and Jeff Szafransky will have the honor of playing their first group matches in the Men's Event during tomorrow's first session of play, while the reigning United States National Snooker Champion, Corey Deuel, will play his first group match at 3pm local time (5am Pacific Time in the United States / 1pm GMT). Rezk Atta will have to wait until 5:30pm on November 29 to play his first group match in the Masters' Event.

The group matches in the Men's Event are played over the best-of-7-frames, with the top four players in each of the eightteen groups advancing into the knockout stage of the event. The group matches in the Masters' Event, as with the Ladies' Event, are played over the best-of-5-frames, with the top four players in both events progressing to the knockout stage.

United States players' playing schedules (Local Latvia time stated):

Corey Deuel (Men's Event Group P)
Match 1 - November 28: 3pm start vs. Batsukh Baldandorj (Mongolia)
Match 2 - November 29: 3pm start vs. Iulian Boiko (Ukraine)
Match 3 - November 30: 5:30pm start vs. Lee Walker (Wales)
Match 4 - December 1: 8pm start vs. Zhao Xintong (China)
Match 5 - December 2: 8pm start vs. David Vaitzman (Israel)

Ahmed Aly Elsayed (Men's Event Group A)
Match 1 - November 28: 10am start vs. Muhammad Asif (Pakistan)
Match 2 - November 28: 5:30pm start vs. Peteris Ermansons (Latvia)
Match 3 - November 29: 5:30pm start vs. Lukas Kleckers (Germany)
Match 4 - November 30: 8pm start vs. Ismail Türker (Turkey)
Match 5 - December 1: 8pm start vs. David Hogan (Ireland)
Match 6 - December 3: 12:30pm start vs. Bratislav Krastev (Bulgaria)

Jeff Szafransky (Men's Event Group B)
Match 1 - November 28: 10am start vs. Zhou Yuelong (China)
Match 2 - November 28: 5:30pm start vs. Hans Blanckaert (Belgium)
Match 3 - November 29: 8pm start vs. Hussain Alawadhi (Kuwait)
Match 4 - November 30: 8pm start vs. Simonas Dragunas (Lithuania)
Match 5 - December 2: 10am start vs. Jeff Cundy (England)
Match 6 - December 3: 8pm start vs. Joseph McLaren (Scotland)

Rezk Atta (Masters' Event Group J)
Match 1 - November 29: 5:30pm start vs. Alain Vandersteen (Belgium)
Match 2 - November 30: 3pm start vs. Mindaugas Maisiejus (Lithuania)
Match 3 - December 3: 5:30pm start vs. Ygal Pagliari (Israel)
Match 4 - December 4: 10am start vs. Chuchart Trairattanapradit (Thailand)
Match 5 - December 4: 3pm start vs. Shane Gorman (Ireland)

SnookerUSA.com will report on all the match results from the United States players.

A complete list of the Group draws and results from each of the events is available on the official scoring website:
» Men's Event
» Ladies' Event
» Masters' Event