instead of `range(x)`, you can use the * operator on a list of anything, if you don't actually need to use the value of `i`:

 for i in[1]*8:

as opposed to

 for i in range(8):

note you save yet another character by omitting the space before `[`

if you need to do this more than twice, you could assign any iterable to a variable, and multiply that variable by the range you want:

 r=[1]
 for i in r*8:pass
 for i in r*1000:pass

as opposed to:

 r=range
 for i in r(8):pass
 for i in r(1000):pass

edit: saving 1 more character, you can use tuple notation instead of a character or list:

 r=1,
 for i in r*8:pass

but that won't work if you only need to use it once:

 for i in 1,*8:pass # this is invalid syntax