Lalli considers this. He's not feeling stressed out from being around people yet, and this is a one-on-one interaction anyway and not so likely to make him feel crowded. And it's for a game, which is easy to end if Lalli gets bored with it. What finally gets him to accept is the stray thought of 'there's nothing else to do here right now anyway', which helps him realize that this is far better than being bored doing nothing. So he nods, and he takes the seat across from Malcolm.

Lalli's eyes scan the chess board, his mind digging back in his memories to recall just how to play the game. The castles move in lines, the horses move in an L-shape, the pointed-topped pieces- he doesn't recall the name for those- they move on diagonals, and so forth. After a few seconds of this, Lalli nods again and says, "White pieces move first." He remembers that rule too.