Why were Anakin and Obi-Wan the only Jedi who were assigned to rescue the Chancellor?

Question

During the Battle of Coruscant, Anakin and Obi-Wan were the only 2 Jedi who were tasked with rescuing the Chancellor. Now similar to the Battle of Geonosis, Yoda and Mace Windu bring all the Jedi on Geonosis for a rescue mission of Anakin, Obi-Wan and Padme.

Going back to the question, there are many members of the Jedi Council at that point, like Yoda, Mace Windu, Plo Koon, Kit Fisto, Luminara Unduli, etc.. So why was the mission only assigned to Anakin and Obi-Wan? Why didn't the Jedi Council members as mentioned volunteer to rescue the Chancellor?

Answer 1

There's a few plot points here to consider

First, the Jedi DID send more to try and save Palpatine. Note that the Tartakovsky cartoons are no longer official canon, but the events they depict are (yes, that's confusing, just roll with it)

By my count there were 4 Jedi (if you count Mace Windu at the very end) and a full trooper contingent sent to get Palpatine to safety. The problem is they faced pre-smash General Grevious, who was a formidable foe by himself (he takes out 4 Jedi in a prior episode).

Second, there was this massive invasion of Coruscant. Remember, Episode III opens with Obi-Wan and Anakin flying through a massive fire-fight between the Separtists and the Republic. Likely the Jedi were tied up trying to deal with all manner of problems stemming from that.

Third, Grievous was pretty badly damaged by Mace Windu (see the very end of the first point video). He's so badly damaged he's almost a non-issue in the movie (he even runs away from two Jedi, despite the fact that he's killed dozens of Jedi by himself). That mostly leaves everything to Count Dooku.

Lastly, we now have all of the Clone Wars series (the canon one) showing Anakin grow as a Jedi. By this point, Kenobi and Skywalker were two of the top Jedi fighting the war. That's how Anakin finishes the job with Dooku he couldn't hack at the end of Episode II.

Answer 2

The movie never said that Obi-Wan and Anakin were "officially assigned" by the Jedi order to rescue the Chancellor.

Here's the opening text crawl of Episode 3:

Last paragraph:

As the Separatist Droid Army attempts to flee the besieged capital with their valuable hostage, two Jedi Knights lead a desperate mission to rescue the captive Chancellor....

It's very possible that lots of Jedi Knights (who weren't already engaged with the on-going war) were trying to reach General Grievous' ship, but as everything was planned by Palpatine and he had a clear agenda of Anakin beheading Dooku in his mind, all Jedi Knights except Anakin and Obi-Wan received heavy fire which prevented them from getting a chance of rescuing the Chancellor.

Answer 3

  Anakin and Kenobi were together on Mandalore, rest of Jedi were scattered throughout the Outer Rim

According to novel Ahsoka, Skywalker and Tano were on Mandalore hunting for Maul:

It probably would have gone better if Anakin were with her. “Be careful, Ahsoka,” he’d told her, before handing over her lightsabers and running off to save the Chancellor. “Maul is tricky. And he has no mercy in him at all.”

It is unclear where was Kenobi at the moment, but it could be assumed that he went with Anakin, as Maul was his "old wound" and they usually operated together. Rest of Jedi were mostly scattered in Outer Rim Sieges. Although in old Clone Wars(2003) group of Jedi unsuccessfully tries to protect Palpatine from Grievous (Windu manages to crush his lungs), this is not given in new Disney canon.

In Revenge of the Sith novel, also part of Legends now, it is revealed that Palpatine planned to kill Kenobi and seduce Anakin to Dark Side, no other Jedi were mentioned:

“Kenobi must die. Today. At your hand. His death may be the code key of the final lock that will seal Skywalker to us forever.” Dooku understood: not only would the death of his mentor tip Skywalker’s already unstable emotional balance down the darkest of slopes, but it would also remove the greatest obstacle to Skywalker’s successful conversion. As long as Kenobi was alive, Skywalker would never be securely in the camp of the Sith; Kenobi’s unshakable faith in the values of the Jedi would keep the Jedi blindfold on Skywalker’s eyes and the Jedi shackles on the young man’s true power.

In this same novelization Dooku deliberately lets two of them go trough weakened Droid defenses instead of using full power at his disposal. Again, it could be deducted from this that he would simply kill any other Jedi attempting the rescue, because his master would not have need for them.

Finally, it is unclear where was Yoda during this whole ordeal. It is a possibility that Yoda didn't want to save Chancellor considering that he already suspected Palpatine's true motives behind slowly grabbing more and more power from the Senate for himself.