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.[1] 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.[2] In 2012 Birsan campaigned for and was elected to one of two open seats on the City Council of Concord, California.[3]
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[4] and the designer of the satirical card game Scandal.[5] During the 1990s he took ownership of Legends (PBM), during which time Legends won the best Play By Mail Game Manufacturers Association award.
Bibliography
- Five Minute Single Sheet Diplomacy Rule Summary
- How to Teach Diplomacy
- Sample Teaching Script for Diplomacy Rules
- Learning the Basics-Reading the Pieces/Position/Players
- First Games-Teaching and Learning
- Stabbing in the Spring or Fall?
- Mentor Notes- a compilation of 8 articles for newcomers to the Diplomacy Paradox PC version
- The Jutland Gambit
- The Koniggratz Freakout
- The Lepanto Opening
- The Sealion Opening
- Caesar Opening
- German Northern Suicide Opening
- Western Walls -Stalemate Lines
- AIR: Austrian-Italian-Russian Alliance opening
- Triple Alliance brief summaries
- Unusual Alliances: Austrian Fleet power and Turkish Land power
- Playing Italy Part 1
- Playing Italy Part 2
- Playing Germany Part 1
- Playing Germany Part 2
- Rebuttal to the Illyria Opening
- Welcome to Galicia
- My First Games
- Analysis of the Top Board in Milan 2006
- Lies/Truths/Betrayal in Diplomacy
- Escalation Variant-When you do not have 7 to play Diplomacy
- Escalation and Double Diplomacy Variant
- Imperial Diplomacy-End game play for two
- Formal Diplomacy-Variant with Treaties
- Card Diplomacy for no written orders
- The Odd Theory
- Teaching the Rules of Diplomacy Videos
- The Game of Diplomacy
- Short Player Guide for New Players on Play By Mail
- Face to Face Tournament Player Guide
- Face to Face Tournaments Part 2
- Face to Face Tournaments Part 3
- Face to Face Tournaments Part 4
- Face to Face Tournaments Top Board Play Discussion
- Working a Con-building-recruiting for a Convention
- Team Diplomacy
- Style of Country Award Prizes
- Interview Review in Diplomacy World
- Diplomacy Car Bumper Stickers
- Quiz on Diplomacy Map Oddities
- Roles of Artificial Intelligence in Diplomacy
- Diplomacy Olympics
- Running a Diplomacy Event
- Prize and Sur'prize- Trophies/rewards and Running Tournaments
- Reflections on the Downunder ADC 2000
- DipCon 36 Review 2003
- Comments on Hidden Tournament Scoring Systems
- Draw Whittling and the Win Only School of Thought
- Ranking and Scoring systems vs Tournament systems
References
- ↑ Richard Sharp (1978), "11 Introduction to Postal Diplomacy", The Game of Diplomacy, Arthur Barker, ISBN 978-0-213-16676-2
- ↑ Buz Eddy, Edi Ersalesi Birsan, The Diplomatic Pouch
- ↑ http://claycord.com/2012/11/07/dan-helix-ed-birsan-win-the-two-open-seats-on-concords-council/
- ↑ Babylon 5 Collectible Card Game, BoardGameGeek
- ↑ Scandal, BoardGameGeek