He was born on 10 March 1940 in Rykovo, Russian SFSR, USSR (now Russia). In his early days as a chess player, Kharchenko won the Championship of the Ukrainian SSR twice - first in 1963 and again in 1967. He also represented Ukraine in the 1965 USSR Chess Championship and ranked 11-12th.
Kharchenko holds his biggest achievement as the victory in the 1991 semi-final of the Continental Championship of Europe, where he came equal first. Following his impressive performance, he was invited to the Europe Championship final in 1991 and 1993 where he scored a significant 12 points out of 19 possible.
Apart from playing chess, Kharchenko has also made a significant contribution as a chess trainer. He was the trainer of the Ukrainian women chess team, which emerged as the winner in the Chess Olympiad tournament held in Yerevan in 1996.