We have a city championship every year that pits the winner of one 6 man round robin vs another 6 man round robin winner.
They play best 2 out of 3 to determine that years city champion.
This year one of the players is rated over 2300 and the other is right around 1800.
These players haven’t deliberately chosen to play each other. They are playing each other because they won their section.
So is this a match? (as in match play) and if so can it be US Chess rated?
(if violates the 400 point differential rule)
I believe that since the players did not elect to play each other, the answer is “No.” However, it will not pass validation, and you will need office approval to override the match restrictions.
It was only one game but I didn’t need to do a match override when a 2-month long round robin had one delayed game submitted by itself two weeks later (players rated 402 points apart). With three games involved (maybe only two if one player wins them both), and with a larger rating difference, I anticipate that Alex’s answer is likely correct.
As it is 2 games or more, it will need a match override from the office, which requires explaining the circumstances, but I don’t see any problems with that being approved.
If you submit each of the 6-player round robins as a separate event, perhaps you could add 2 of the playoff games to one crosstable and 1 to the other.
The prelims have already been submitted and rated. They ran over the course of two months. (one game every two weeks and a little extra time for make ups)
As long as the players know in advance that it will take a few extra days to get rated, there is no real need to play with the event. Since this is a play-off, even the extra $2.25 to $2.50 needed to meet the minimum charge is minor.
It won’t even take a few extra days. I’ve submitted a rating report on a Tuesday night (Metrowest Chess Club monthly tournament) that had a section so small that two players ended up having to meet three times (ugh). I sent email to ratingsmgr@uschess.org explaining the situation after the event failed validation and had a reply (and the event approved for rating) the next morning.