Article by Tudor Belivacă – Published Tuesday, April 28, 2026, 7:02 p.m. / Updated Tuesday, April 28, 2026, 7:02 p.m.
Former snooker world champion and household name Neil Robertson has called for Ronnie O'Sullivan's chalk to be banned, saying it is hated by most players and leaves a “total mess” on the table.
Ronnie O'Sullivan uses Triangle chalk, while most players on the circuit use Taom chalk. The controversy arose after John Higgins beat O'Sullivan 13-12 in the last 16 of the World Championship and Robertson secured his meeting with Higgins after beating Chris Wakelin 13-7. Robertson brought this to the public's attention immediately after the match: “I'd rather play with John so I don't have to deal with the chalk that Ronnie uses, which should be banned from the game. I don't know how that's allowed!”
Critics of this product claim that it causes more miscontacts, known as kickswhich occur when the cue ball mishits the target ball due to chalk residue, and often result in misses or missed balls.
Neil Robertson: “Every player hates Ronnie O'Sullivan's chalk. I hope they ban it!”
“All the players hate it, it just ruins everything. We have kicksricochets and leaves the table in a total mess. I know he's friends with Damien Hirst, but it's like he's doing chalk art all over the post. I don't think he's doing it to disconnect anyone, he doesn't have that intention. He is practically the only player on the circuit who still uses this chalk. I hope they ban it. It can really break the game and isn't fair to players who don't use it.
Even snooker clubs ban it, because it spoils the game. So why do we use it? No professional allows anyone to use Triangle chalk on their table,” Neil Robertson reported, according to abola.pt.
Robertson's opinion is shared by other legends of the sport. Seven-time world champion Stephen Hendry commented during the BBC broadcast that “Ronnie uses old chalk that leaves a lot of marks on the table” and that they “can cause big ricochets”. For his part, six-time world champion Steve Davis explained that a new chalk, Taom, had come on the market and was adopted by almost all players because it was “much better”, but that “Ronnie decided to stick with the old one, the one he knew”.
In the match with O'Sullivan, Higgins was the victim of a kick to a red ball, causing him to exclaim “Oh my God!”. Although he introduced the ball, he was out of position and missed the next black ball, an error which, however, did not prove fatal to his incredible comeback.
