Played in 1926 and 1927, the first World Snooker Championship—then known as the Professional Championship of Snooker—was won by Joe Davis. As a professional English billiards and snooker player himself, Davis raised the game from being simply a recreational pastime to becoming also a professional sporting activity. Entirely dominant, he won every tournament until 1946, when he retired from taking part in the championships. The 1952 World Snooker Championship was only contested by two players and was replaced by the World Professional Match-play Championship, but was also discontinued in 1957. Feeling that the popularity of the game was waning, Davis introduced a variation known as "snooker plus", with the addition of two extra colours, but this failed to attract attention and was very short-lived. A Women's Professional Snooker Championship (now the World Women's Snooker Championship) was created in 1934 for top female players, whilst a world championship for top amateur players, now known as the IBSF World Snooker Championship was founded in 1963.