rook or free piece

subject: rook or nothing meaning either you take a rook or you loss nothing...

 now i have been in games where my has opponet has taken a free piece "bishop or knight"  and not taking a ROOK while  escaped freely with his (bishop or knight) piece... now......... i have been wondering weather  it was the right move or not. now i know that you dont loss any points when you escape with a free piece but,a rook is very important in the end game.. so, i want to hear both sides of the argument, end game or not! just tell me what you think is best when you are not considering the end game....PS i hope all you professionals (LOOMIS and up)  will tell me the bottom line truth.

thanks, TKisDApoop---------- home made signature!!!!  

if i'm understanding you correctly, it's simple math:

capture knight or bishop (+3) and lose nothing = +3

capture rook (+5) and lose knight or bishop (-3) = +2

of course everything is not set in stone either. it totally depends on the game situation. if their rook has an open file and your piece is blocked in, for example, it might skew things.