Edi Birsan

Who is Edi Birsan?

Edi Ersalesi Birsan is a Concord City Councilman, a game designer and an independent business owner in the Maritime Container Inspection industry, and one of the best-known American players of the game Diplomacy. He was born in Brooklyn in 1949 but since 1981 has resided in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he is married and has two children. In 2012 Birsan successfully campaigned and was elected to one of two open seats on the City Council of Concord, CA.

Birsan has been playing Diplomacy since 1965 at age 16 and has won many tournaments. He was the first non-South African to win the South African tournament, first non-Canadian to win the Canadian Championship, first non-Russian to win the Russian Championship and first non-European to win the European Championship. He ran the postal zine Arena from 1970 to 1973. He was a founder of several Diplomacy hobby organizations and consultant to Avalon Hill on the rewrite of the rules of the game in 1999. He is best known for inventing the Lepanto and Sealion openings.

In 1969 and 1970 Birsan worked on the magazine Strategy and Tactics as associate and then managing editor. He was part of the design team of Poultron Press with James Dunnigan, participating in the design of games in 1969 and 1970: Normandy, Deployment, Flying Fortress, Italy and others. He was one of several designers of the Babylon 5 Collectible Card Game and the designer of Scandal. During the '90s he took ownership of Legends, during which time Legends won the best Play By Mail Game Manufacturers Association award.