The BWF World Championships is a badminton tournament sanctioned by Badminton World Federation (BWF). The tournament offers the most ranking points, together with Olympic Games. The winners will be crowned as the "World Champions" and awarded gold medals. However, it does not offer any prize money. The tournament started in 1977 and was held once every three years until 1983. Started 1985, the tournament became bi-annual and played once every two years until 2005. From 2006, the tournament was changed to an annual event on the BWF calendar with the goal to give more chances for the players to be crowned as official "World Champions". However, the tournament will not be held once every four years to give way to the Olympic Games.