Defending champion Gary Anderson and two-time former PDC king Adrian Lewis both deserve their place in the showpiece contest as the undoubted top two players from the tournament.
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Momentum was with Van Barneveld as he secured seven of nine legs with another 100 checkout to lead the eighth set 2-0.
But he tasted defeat in the final for the first time after victories in 2011 and 2012, the first of which was against Anderson.
The world number two said: “I was playing a good friend of mine tonight and it just never happened”.
During a storming start, Anderson quickly snapped up two legs before sealing the ideal leg, firing in back-to-back 180s and a fantastic 141 checkout to earn himself a £15,000 bonus.
Lewis twice missed double top, in legs one and three, in the seventh set and then blew double nine before Anderson nailed double 10 to go 4-3 up and despite another miscount, moved in charge at 5-3 with a double 12 to win the set.
Finishes of 40 and 130 saw Smith take a 2-0 lead in the final set but he missed a dart at tops for the match on a 113 checkout, and van Barneveld took out 96 to punish him before landing double eight again to make it two legs each, forcing a tie-break.
Gary Anderson is one win away from retaining his World Championship title after easing to a 6-0 triumph over Jelle Klaasen.
Anderson found his rhythm at the restart in a rapid blur of arrows that put a frustrated expression on his opponent’s face – the Scot took the second set with 36 darts, nailing all his doubles and preventing Lewis from a single effort at winning a leg.
“Suddenly I was under the cosh and I thought ‘I have never felt pressure like this”.
Lewis became the first player ever to hit a nine-dart finish in a world final on that occasion and is now looking to repeat that feat less than 24 hours after Anderson produced a flawless leg in his Semi-Final master-class.
Lewis made a dream start as he claimed an early break and went on to wrap up the opening set in clinical fashion and then sealed the first two legs of the second. At 4-2 up Lewis missed a dart for the match, but Wright failed to punish him, missing a shot to take the match to a further set.
It is why he does not think anyone will beat Taylor’s record as 16-times world champion.
“I’m feeling hungry, I feel like I can win it again”.
Lewis was 3-2 up and when he broke Anderson’s throw in the opening leg of the sixth set, “Jackpot” was well placed.
Anderson defeated Wade 5-1 with an average of over 105 as he coasted to victory.
It’s hard to gauge how good Lewis was against Raymond van Barneveld but taking a 5-0 advantage and beating Barney 6-3 must be a very decent performance.
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Gary Anderson v Jelle Klaasen.
