Deep Blue may be able to calculate 200 million moves per second, but it can't move the chess pieces. During the Kasparov-Deep Blue rematch, that job often falls to Feng-hsiung Hsu, who initiated the Deep Blue project as a doctoral student at Carnegie Mellon University. Moments after Deep Blue's victory in Game 2, he sat down for an question-and-answer session with our reporter.

When Kasparov resigned today and shook your hand, what was running through your mind?

I was a little bit surprised, but it was probably a lost position for Kasparov. The machine's score was quite high at that point, but there was probably some play left. I guess he didn't want to suffer any more.

You started this whole project while a student at Carnegie Mellon University. When you shook his hand, how did that feel?

It was quite different from last year's feeling after we won Game 1 – I was also the one who shook Kasparov's hand when he resigned last year. Actually, his attitude last year was quite different. This year, he is taking the match much more seriously. Last year, he was asking how he could play better, and this year, I guess he knew that he didn't make any major mistakes as far as we could tell.

What is it like to sit across the chess board from Kasparov?

He's very expressive. There are some specific mannerisms that are quite well known within the chess world, like the way he takes off his watch and jacket during the game. You know that the game is settled when he puts his watch back on during the game. It's hard to say actually, because I really don't get the same feeling that a chess player gets when sitting across from Kasparov. I wasn't really playing the game. I'm just an extension of the machine. I've been told by chess players – Murray Campbell, for example, is a chess player who has played against Deep Blue – that when Garry is playing against humans, he has a presence that is sometimes menacing to his opponents.

But that advantage is taken away when Garry plays against Deep Blue.

That doesn't apply to me because I didn't feel anything, and that certainly doesn't apply to the rest of the Deep Blue team because they don't even see him. I think that took away part of his edge. He can't really apply psychological pressure on the machine. Sometimes, Garry will play moves that objectively are not necessarily the best moves. But against human players, he will make moves that create problems and psychological pressure for human opponents and the opponent cracks. Usually, he just wins because he is so good. But there are times that his position is not sufficient to win, but he can apply psychological pressure that make the position unclear, and overwhelm the opponent. That approach isn't effective against Deep Blue. The computer will just call his bluff. That's essentially what happened in last year's first game – Deep Blue called his bluff.

Did Kasparov say anything to you at the end of the game today?

Not really. He just said, "I resign." Essentially he left the room not feeling very happy about the game. I guess he had suffered enough.

Who is going to sit at the table on Tuesday for the Deep Blue team?

Maybe we'll flip a coin this time.